The Things We Do for Love
by Timothy D
Summary: (My entry for NaNoWriMo) Through an innocuous search, Lincoln finds his twin brother’s diary and decides to give it a read. He ends up discovering that his twin doesn’t exactly hold a high opinion of himself. Not wanting to leave his brother to suffer in silence, Lincoln resolves to help his twin come to see that he isn’t as useless as he thinks.
1. TheJournal

**Well, it's November and that means it's time for National Novel Writibg Month (or NaNoWriMo for short). I've never participated in this event before and up until yesterday, I didn't intend on participating. But following encouragement from a few friends on Discord, I figured I'd give it a shot. So here it is: my entry for NaNoWriMo. The usual warnings of OCs is in effect here. If you clicked on this story, I hope you enjoy it. Peace Out!**

It had started with a simple search. A search for a lost comic book that had probably been misplaced or maybe even destroyed by an intruding sister. Lincoln couldn't help but be annoyed at the fact that his sisters felt they could walk in and out of his and Lio's room as they pleased, yet would scold him if he so much as accidentally wandered into theirs without knocking. Lincoln mumbled a light swear to himself as he combed over the shelf housing his comic book collection, making sure that he hadn't accidentally skimmed over the book (Ace Savvy: Tarot Trouble #1 for those curious) in question. The sooner he found the book, the sooner he could engage in one of his favorite pastimes: reading comics in his undies. Lincoln briefly wondered if it had perhaps been his brother who was responsible for his missing comic. Maybe he'd mistaken it for one of the manga he liked to collect and put away on his shelf. Or maybe, this was another instance of him teaming up with Luan to prank him. Walking over to his brother's side of the room, Lincoln looked through his twin's bookshelf. He wanted to make absolutely certain none of his siblings had anything to do with his missing comic before he began throwing accusations. Last time he'd jumped to conclusions, it hadn't ended well for him.

Anyway, the search through Lio's bookshelf proved to be fruitless, prompting Lincoln to look underneath his bed as he'd already checked under his own bed and found nothing. While there was no trace of his comic book to be found, Lincoln did find something else that was caught his eye in the form of an old shoebox. As Lio wasn't the type to horde what he considered trash, this struck Lincoln as being rather odd. Pulling the box out from under the bed and picking it up, Lincoln felt that it was too heavy to be empty. Figuring that it wouldn't hurt to take one small peek at whatever was inside, Lincoln threw open the lid and found a small little pink hardcover book inside the box. Placing the box down, Lincoln picked up the book to take a closer look at it. Written on the cover in cursive were the words "Lio's Journal" with "リオの日記" being scribbled underneath it. Upon seeing just what this book was, Lincoln moved to put it back in its box, only to suddenly stop and stare at the journal in his hands.

For some reason, Lincoln couldn't help but feel the urge to open up Lio's journal and read through it. He knew that he'd be the biggest hypocrite if he were to complain about his sisters invading his own privacy while he turned around and did the same thing to his twin. Still, like a siren luring sailors to their demise, Lio's diary seemed to be beckoning him to open it up and read a few pages. At the same time, Lincoln felt as if he needed to read it and that the journal's content was important. Violating Lio's privacy would be so wrong, but at the same time could end up being for the better at the same time.

"Come on, Lincoln, what are you saying?" Lincoln asked him. "Are you really going to go behind your brother's back and read his deepest and darkest secret like this?" Lincoln almost expected for a miniature angel and demon to materialize on his shoulder and try coaxing him into reading and not reading the diary respectively. Then again, Lincoln had the strange feeling that both would try convincing him to go through with it.

"Am I really going to do this?" Lincoln asked himself as he slowly flipped the cover and opened up to the first page. Nothing could've prepared Lincoln for the what was written in Lio's journal as he read off the first entry. "Entry date- 15 May 20XX. I don't exactly know how to do this whole writing in a diary thing, but here goes…"

Truthfully, the only reason I even bought this journal is so that I don't annoy my siblings with my meaningless wangsting. DIO knows I already put them through enough as it is with my stupid antics. Sometimes I feel like it's a miracle that they even put up with me. How anyone could continuously tolerate an annoying halfwit like myself is beyond me. Heck, I don't know how Mom Dad have gone this long without kicking me out. Any sensible person would've dropped me like a bad habit at the first opportunity. Heck, if I were in their shoes, I would've jumped at the first chance to cleanse my hands of such filth.

Wow, guess I'm not holding back any punches and going straight for the jugular. Maybe I should tone down on the self deprecation for right now. Key phrase being "for right now". Maybe I should start this journal entry by describing my day and boy… what a day it's been. Today it seemed like everything that could go wrong went wrong. I don't even know why I'm surprised when I should be used to things going south. It started off simple enough with my alarm failing to go off, causing me to wake up late. I barely had time to shower and get dressed before it was time to go and even then, I still ended up holding up my siblings for a few minutes. 僕わ無駄のバカ. 無駄無駄 (やれやれだぜ. なぜ私は日本語で書いているのですか?). They would've been so much better off if they'd just left me behind and forced me to walk to school. I would've hated if one of them ended up being late to school because of me.

Had the misfortune ended there, it would've been nothing to write about. But wouldn't you know that things weren't that simple. In my mad morning scramble, I had forgotten my homework for math class and left it lying on my desk. Just my luck, right. Despite my best attempts to explain the situation with my teacher, she refused to hear it and graded me an F on the spot. I'm still wondering just how I'm going to explain that one to Mom Dad. At the very least, I still had my English class to look forward to. At least, that's what I thought. Today was the day my book report was due and while I was fortunate enough not to forget that at home, I had forgotten that half of the grade for said book report came from giving an oral presentation in front of the class. And, just to make matters even worse, the teacher called on me to present to the class first! But wait, there's more! Just when I thought things couldn't possibly get any worse, I fainted _in front of the class before I could even utter a single word._

_So needless to say, I failed that assignment too. Not only that, but the whole class thinks I'm a mute now, which in and of itself wouldn't be so bad if they didn't make fun of me for it in the hallways after class. The day wasn't even halfway over and I already wanted to crawl into a hole and be forgotten about. The next class I had was gym class and I was half tempted to just skip it all together. Not wanting to have a trifecta of failing grades in one day, I reluctantly attended. I'd soon come to regret that decision as today we were playing a game of dodgeball. While I was hoping that the team captains would skip me altogether due to the fact that I had practically no skill when it came to sports, that wasn't meant to be. Lincoln and I ended up being selected for the same team, but wouldn't you know that my "arch rival", that twit, that insufferable jerk Chandler ended up being captain of the opposite team._

_Five seconds. Five seconds is how long I lasted in the game before being hit in the face with a dodgeball and eliminated. Normally, I would've been ecstatic at being knocked out so early as it meant I could sit out the rest of the class. Unfortunately, in this case when I say I was knocked out, I mean literally knocked out. That contemptible Chandler had meant to throw the ball at my brother, only for me to intercept it at the cost of being hit in the face and knocked out cold. I don't know how long I was out, but when I came to, I had a shiny black eye and a bloody nose. I honestly would've preferred taking another failing grade to this. What good was gym class anyway?_

_Trying to turn a negative into a positive, I figured that this would at least give me something to talk about with Kat when we met during lunch. Of course for anything to go my way on this day would've violated the natural order I suppose. When lunch rolled around, I was starving on account of having not eaten breakfast. I realized all too late that I'd forgotten to bring my lunch like I normally would. I hadn't even had time to grab an apple on my way out the door this morning. Fortunately for me, Kat was willing to share her lunch with me. I don't know what good deed I did to be blessed with a friend like her, she really was a one of a kind friend. So of course I had to find a way to almost screw it up. Kat had graciously given my half of her turkey sandwich and I ate it quickly. The two of us talked and for a brief time, it seemed as if my bad luck had come to an end._

_Being the otaku geeks that we are, the two of us bowed to each other… except we were a bit too close to each other and ended up hitting heads. A collision that ended up causing my nose to bleed again. And just to emphasize the fact that the world hates me, some of my blood ended up getting on Kat's shirt and shoes; and since Kat freaked out at the sight of blood, she didn't take it well. Kat started to scream and freak out while I desperately tried to help her clean up the mess, only to get more blood on her clothing. We ended up causing a major scene and bringing all eyes on us. It was so embarrassing that I prayed I'd drop dead of a heart attack then and there. Eventually, Kat calmed down, but I figured she wanted nothing to do with me and skedaddled. _

_When the school day finally and mercifully came to an end, I couldn't wait to get back home and nurse my black eye. Despite everything that had happened, I put a smile on my face and made sure none of my siblings caught on. They undoubtedly had their own problems and the last thing they needed was for me to bring down their mood just because I'd had one bad day. I honestly don't know how Lincoln is able to keep a stiff upper lip and optimistic whenever he has days like this. He always seemed to have the strength to soldier on while I felt like collapsing and crying on the floor the moment I stepped foot in the house. All because of one bad day. I guess that's why I always considered him the de facto leader. Why I always secretly looked up to him. I wish that I was as strong as he was. I can only dream of being half as good as he is._

_Look at me, reduced to this complaining over what was just a simple bad day. But that's just the thing, this wasn't just a bad day. This was just a part of an endless cycle of me screwing up. Yet, there's nothing I can do about it but mope. I hate to keep comparing myself to my brother, but I bet Lincoln would never resort to crying and whining in some pity diary. I bet none of my sisters would either. Just another reason I'm a waste of space on this family tree. I'll always be the inferior Loud. I'll always be in the shadow of my siblings and rightfully so. _

_What do you know, it didn't take long for me to resume the self deprecation. Strangely enough though, I actually feel somewhat better. Maybe admitting just how much of a failure I am will help dull the pain of that knowledge. I must make sure that none of my siblings ever come across this diary as despite how unbearably obnoxious I can be, they may still somehow grow worried for me. They already bombarded me with questions when I came home with a black eye. They seemed ready to jump down the throats of whoever had given it to me (at least, until Lincoln reminded them what happened last time they meddled in our lives). For the life of me, I couldn't understand why they would do such a thing. Anyway, the point is that if they found out about this journal, they'd grow even more worried. And I can't do that to them. I can't make them worry about my wellbeing over their own lives. I could never be so selfish as to do such a thing. I love them too much to drag them down._

_Darn it, my head is starting to hurt again. Maybe I should take a break from scribbling in this journal/diary/whatever to tend to that. Maybe I'll work on my manga a little to pass the time or maybe work on a few commissions. After what happened today, I think it would be best to leave Kat alone. I hope that she doesn't hate me for what happened. I don't know what I'd do if I lost her friendship. She's the only real friend I have. I guess that's all for this journal entry, but if things continue to go the way they've been going, I have no doubt that I'll have more entries to write in this little book._

_Signing off, Lio Loud _

Lincoln had to take a few seconds to take in what he'd read. Was this really how his brother felt about himself? While he was flattered by the fact that Lio said he looked up to him and considered him a leader, the fact that Lio had been so openly disparaging himself was cause for concern. Lincoln tried to think back to the day Lio described in his journal to see if he could remember that day. It took some time, but Lincoln could finally recall the events that Lio was talking about. He remembered being in gym class that day when Lio had been hit in the face. While he had no idea about the other events Lio had talked about on that day, he recalled how at the end of the day Lio seemed to be his normal quiet but happy and carefree self. He'd displayed no signs of distress or worry and in fact even cracked a couple jokes about his black eye. Considering what he'd just read, Lincoln wondered if perhaps those jokes were mean hearted self deprecating jabs.

Lincoln was about to read even more entries to see whether this entry was just a one time thing or if Lio's self deprecation ran deeper than that when he heard someone coming upstairs. Scrambling quickly, Lincoln hid Lio's diary behind his back and kicked the shoebox he had found it in back underneath his bed. Just in time too as the person coming upstairs was none other than his twin brother himself.

"Hey Lio," Lincoln said nervously, doing his best not to give away the fact he'd was holding the latter's journal behind his back. "What's up?"

"Nothing much," Lio said excitedly with a smile. "Kat and I were at the park to work on a project for our history class."

"What's that project about?" Lincoln asked.

"We're supposed to be discussing the part the Goths played in bringing about the fall of the Western Roman Empire," Lio said before joking "Maybe I should've asked Lucy for some help in that regard."

"Interesting," Lincoln said with a nervous grin. "So, anything you want to talk to me about? Anything at all?"

"No, I'm good," Lio said.

"Are you sure there's nothing you wanna talk about?" Lincoln asked, pressing Lio to say more in hopes that he could get his brother to open up more. "Nothing bothering you or getting under your skin? Nothing that's maybe weighing on your mind?"

"I said I'm fine," Lio said with a laugh. "Are you okay, Linc? You're acting kinda strange."

"Me? Strange? Come on, really?" Lincoln replied. "I'm just trying to look out for you and make sure you're doing alright. After all, what kind of brother would I be if I didn't check in on my twin every now and again?"

"Thanks bro, I really appreciate it," Lio said, giving Lincoln a hug and saying, "You really are too kind and too good to me." Causing Lincoln to wonder if Lio's last remark was meant to be a subtle jab at himself or just an innocent compliment.

"So what are you going to do now?" Lincoln asked as Lio grabbed his art tablet and turned to head out.

"Oh, Lola's got another pageant coming up," Lio informed him. "The winner of this one goes on to the state pageant and I promised Lola that I'd do my best to try and help her at least make it to the top 3 this time." Twirling his stylus like an old western gunslinger twirls his pistol, Lio added "To accomplish that, I'm going to draw a magnificent portrait of Lola to print out on posters that we'll hang around town. You know, just to help the judges come to an easier decision."

"Isn't that kinda cheating since you're basically advertising for Lola?" Lincoln asked.

"No, of course not," Lio laughed. "We're just spreading her beauty is all."

"Is that what Lola told you?" Lincoln asked with a chuckle. "What did she offer to get you to go along with this?"

"Nothing," Lio answered. "I'm doing this for free. After all, it's like you said: what kind of brother would I be if I didn't help my siblings every now and again?"

With that, Lio dashed out the door, leaving Lincoln to pull his journal out from behind back and read some more entries. The next entry in the journal following the first was dated a few days later, but was almost just as depressing to read as the first one was.

_So… it's been a while since I've written in this thing hasn't it? Normally, most people would use their journals/diaries to keep logs of all the good times they've had or write about some positive life changing event that just happened to them. Well, unless they're in a horror movie that is, in which case the journal merely serves to document the creepy stuff going on and warn anyone who finds it. Oops, look at me starting to ramble again. Getting back on topic, as I said, most normal people would use their diaries to write about positive things. As we've established, I'm far from normal. I'm actually something of a freak really. Guess that's why I'll be using this thing as something of a venting journal. Not venting against any of my siblings or friends of course, but rather venting against myself and the stupidity I bring._

_So what have I been up to since the last time I wrote an entry? Oh, you know, just been doing the usual screw up thing I seem to be so good at. And boy, this time I really messed up. It was supposed to be a simple visit to the movies with Lucy. The Suburbia of Melancholy movie had just been released and I promised Lucy that I'd accompany her to the midnight premiere. The only thing we'd have to do is sneak past our parents and make it back home before we got caught, but other than that it was pretty simple, right? Oh, you'd be dreadfully wrong. I could live to be 100 years old and I'll never understand how I managed to forget the tickets at home, but somehow I found a way. I hadn't even realized the issue until Lucy and I had purchased our snacks and were in line approaching the ticket taker._

_As the movie was set to start in 15 minutes, there was no time for me to go back home and retrieve them. Not to mention that I didn't want to risk getting busted by mom and dad. In what was one of the few instances in the history of forever of me having a good idea, I decided that the two of us would simply sneak into the movie undetected. I knew that there was a backdoor behind the theater that the employees used when dumping their trash. I also knew that it was always left unlocked. Lucy and I went around back and sneaked past the ticket taker and into the theater the movie was playing in. For a moment, it seemed like the situation had been salvaged with Lucy and I enjoying the film. At least, Lucy was enjoying the movie. I had to put up with these two obnoxious teen girls who kept excitedly kicking my seat._

_I wanted to turn around and tell them off for being annoying, but was too shy and scared to say anything so just accepted it. During the last 15 minutes, things took a turn for the worse. An usher came into the theater and began asking everyone to show their tickets. So close, we'd been so close to getting away with our scheme before some usher had to ruin it. I can't be mad at them as much as I can be mad at myself for putting us in this situation in the first place. All my attempts at thinking of a way out of this predicament were in vain and the usher caught Lucy and I and kicked us out just before the film reached its climax. To say Lucy was upset would be an understatement. She seemed devastated. I could only apologize profusely as we made the walk home. _

_Things went from bad to worse as the moment we stepped foot through the door, Mom and Dad were waiting for us. Turns out we hadn't been as stealthy as we thought we'd been with both of them catching on. Needless to say, we both received a long lecture and scolding about how dangerous our little stunt was. I tried throwing myself under the bus to save Lucy by telling them that sneaking out was all my idea, but Mom said it didn't matter. As punishment for going behind their backs, I was forbidden from drawing for two weeks while Lucy wasn't allowed to meet with her morticians club._

_Bad enough that I had to go and ruin an experience my sister was really looking forward to, I had to go and get her punished too. While Lucy didn't say anything to me and I didn't see any disdain or disgust in her expressions, I know she blames me for how disastrous things turned out and honestly, I can't blame her. I wouldn't blame her if she decided to never speak to me again. I wouldn't blame her if she decided she hated me and wanted nothing to do with me ever again. I'd deserve it. Still, I'll find a way to make it up to her one way or another. It's the least I could do for ruining her night. _

_The fact that I could mess up something so simple only reiterates what I stated earlier about being a waste of space and how the others would be better off ditching me. Only serves to further drive the fact home that I'm muda muda, useless. After this mishap, I don't think I'll be able to sleep, which is why I came here at 3 in the morning. I was going to wake up in an hour and a half anyway so why not vent a little bit. Although then again, Mom and Dad might unexpectedly walk in and mistake my writing for drawing and take this journal away too. I can't let that happen, so I think it would be best if I signed off. If anything interesting happens, I'll be back here before you know it to tell the tales of my eternal failure._

_Signing off, Lio Loud_

While this entry was slightly less self deprecating than the first one, it still painted a dark picture that made Lincoln uncomfortable. Lincoln had been hoping that the first entry would only be a one time thing and that the rest of the entries in the journal would be more lighthearted and optimistic. The opening paragraph alone of entry 2 shot down that idea immediately. At the very least, this entry didn't have any Japanese phrases written in them that Lincoln couldn't understand (he was still scratching his head and worried about what aforementioned phrases even meant in the first place).

Lincoln vividly remembered the morning after the night in question that was detailed in the book. How both Lio and Lucy seemed down when he saw them at the breakfast table that morning. After Mom and Dad had explained the two had been caught sneaking out and how they were being punished, Lincoln thought that their downer expressions was simply a result of their punishments. There were so many other signs that Lincoln missed now that he thought about it. Such as how Lio seemed to squirm away from Lucy and looked away from her with a look of shame. The way he continuously tried lending Lucy a hand throughout the day while remaining silent, not even acknowledging the "thank you"s that Lucy gave him. In fact, any time Lucy thanked him, Lio would react with a frown as if he didn't deserve it.

Now Lincoln knew just why that was. The question lingered though: did Lio really think Lucy hated him over something that they were both equally at blame for? What did that say about Lio himself if he thought his family despised him because of simple mistakes? Another question popped into Lincoln's head: what could he do to help? To uplift his brother's spirits? To maybe even help him escape this negative mindset?

Where would he even begin with that task? Lio clearly didn't want his family knowing about his problems and he clearly wasn't willing to open up. At least, not to them. Lincoln doubted that Lio would take it well if he just came out and said "Hey Lio, I read your diary without your permission! Why are you so depressed and down on yourself man?". For all Lincoln knew, that could result in Lio closing himself off even more and maybe even cause his low self esteem to grow worse. Lincoln wondered if Lio had maybe opened up to Kat about any of this. It'd make sense considering Lio mentioned that she was his closest friend. Perhaps she could provide some help when it came to this.

Lincoln looked at the book in his hands and tried to see if he could remember any other days where Lio's behavior felt strange or generally off. For everything Lio had mentioned about Lincoln and Lucy being able to pull off a mean poker face to hide their true feelings, Lio could do evidently it just as well seeing as Lincoln couldn't think of any other instances where he acted out of character. He couldn't think of any days in recent that his twin could describe as being bad, but given how much he'd been hiding from them, who was to say that Lio wasn't faking his good mood during some of those days. The only way Lincoln could find out for certain would be if he read more.

He would've done just that if he hadn't heard a second set of footsteps coming up the stairs. Deciding that he had done enough snooping for the day and not wanting to get caught, Lincoln slipped Lio's diary back into the shoebox and slid it back underneath his bed. Lincoln decided to play a few video games as maybe that would help him get his mind off of the contents of Lio's diary. That failed to work as intended as no matter how many zombies Lincoln mowed down, he couldn't stop worrying about him. Lincoln knew that Lio would likely never resort to physically harm himself, but that didn't keep him from being concerned. Maybe he should call Clyde and ask for his opinion on this situation, see what advice he would give him.

Later that night, Lincoln was fast asleep in bed. While the events of today were still fresh on his mind, Lincoln was substantially more relaxed. In the middle of his slumber, Lincoln was awoken by the light scratching sound of a pen being put to paper. Lincoln slowly turned over so that he was facing his brother's bed and saw that Lio was writing in his diary. Lio looked up from his journal when he heard Lincoln move and looked over at Lincoln to make sure he hadn't seen anything. Lincoln pretended to still be asleep, managing to ease Lio's concerns as the latter went back to jotting down his thoughts. Lincoln opened one eye and secretly watched as his brother scribbling in his journal. Despite the dim lighting, Lincoln could see that the expression on Lio's face was one of sadness and distress, leaving no doubt in the former's mind that his twin was in the middle of his "venting". Lincoln made up in his mind that at the first chance he got, he'd do whatever he had to do to help Lio. He was not just going to sit idly by and let his twin suffer in silence.


	2. Negative

Lincoln awoke the very next morning at his usual time of 7 AM. As he expected, when he glanced over at the other side of the room, Lio was nowhere to be seen. Knowing his brother, he was likely already downstairs eating breakfast if not drawing his manga in his notebook. Lio always had been rather eccentric, having this daily routine at waking up before even the sun at 4:30 AM. Of course, contrary to what Lio may have thought, that didn't make him a freak. Even if it did, one had to take into consideration that he was part of a family of freaks where the most normal member of their family was the baby. Were it not for the fact that he himself had to get up and at em', Lincoln would've tried taking advantage of the fact that his brother was gone to take another glimpse at his diary. He was curious as to what his twin had been writing last night. Had Lio had another sleepless night like the one described in his second entry or had he merely woken up in the middle of the night to do more of his "venting"? Neither thought was comforting to Lincoln as no matter what the case was, it meant that Lio was tearing into himself again.

Lincoln would have to wait to see what was written in the most recent entry later. Right now, he had a mighty need to relieve himself and not wanting to be forced to wait in a line behind his sisters, Lincoln scrambled to make a mad dash to the bathroom before his sisters arose. After using the bathroom and taking a quick shower, Lincoln got dressed and made sure he had all of his homework ready before heading out to school. After confirming he had everything he needed in his backpack, Lincoln head downstairs to eat breakfast. He was looking forward to his usual breakfast burrito. As he walked into the kitchen, he found Lio waiting for him as was the norm and crunching on a green apple as per usual. Their dad was at the stove, preparing breakfast for both him and their siblings.

"Morning champ!" Lynn Sr. greeted Lincoln as he handed him his breakfast burrito. "Right on time as always."

"I don't know, Dad, he seems to be a few minutes late," Lio teased, nudging Lincoln with his elbow. "So what kept you Linc, got stuck in line behind Lola again?"

"Maybe I was catching up on sleep after your little Morioh Radio alarm woke me up at 4 in the morning," Lincoln joked before quickly regretting his words. While Lio seemed to be in a jovial mood, smiling and cracking jokes, Lincoln knew by now that looks could be deceiving. Even though on the surface, Lincoln's remark was nothing more than a wisecrack, Lio could've easily taken it seriously and begin blaming himself for ruining his brother's sleep. "No, wait, that's not what I meant-,"

"Relax, bro, I know what you mean," Lio said, smiling at Lincoln. "No need to apologize."

"You seem awfully cheerful this morning, son" Lynn Sr noticed. "What's going on?"

"Nothing major," Lio answered. "Kat's birthday is coming up and I plan on surprising her with something special. I'm just trying to think of what I should get her."

Lynn Sr chuckled and said, "I see the two of you are growing closer with each passing day. Honestly, you two remind me of me and your mother when we were first dating."

"We're not dating!" Lio said, blushing bright red.

"At least not officially," Lincoln teased. "Come on, Lio, you don't have to lie to your family. I see just how you two look at each other. You're pretty much lovebirds."

"You mean like you and Ronnie Anne?" Lio retorted, playfully sticking his tongue out at Lincoln.

This time it was the latter's turn to blush as he became flustered, nearly choking on his food before he recovered and "It's not like that!" After taking a sip of his orange juice, Lincoln tried clarifying, saying "We're just friends, nothing more, nothing less."

"Sure you are…" Lio continued to tease. "I'm sure you two are still going to be "just friends" when you're walking down the aisle."

"I'll remember that on you and Kat's wedding day," Lincoln said. "I'm sure the two of you still won't even be dating."

"If you want my opinion, I'm sure both you boys will be happy with whoever you end up with," Lynn Sr interjected before asking Lio "So what exactly did you plan on getting for Kat?"

"Well there's this one character in an anime we've been watching that she's fallen in love with," Lio explained. "I was going to draw a picture of her in that anime's artstyle meeting and hanging out with that character."

"And what's wrong with that?" Lincoln asked.

"It just seems too basic," Lio said, shrugging as he took another bite out of his apple. "I feel like she deserves something far more grand and spectacular. Not just some silly picture."

"Hey, don't sell yourself short," Lincoln told him. "Your art is actually pretty great. If I received one of your works as a birthday gift, I'd be more than satisfied."

"Really?" Lio asked.

"Totally," Lincoln said, giving Lio a reassuring pat on the back. "I mean, you're constantly being commissioned by others to draw things for them so I'm sure that has to count for something."

"Besides, I'm sure Kat isn't expecting you to do anything flashy like give her a diamond ring," Lynn Sr chimed in. "As long as you give her a genuine gift that comes from the heart, I'm sure she'll appreciate it all the same."

"But what if she doesn't?" Lio asked, starting to worry.

"She will," Lincoln said, looking Lio in the eye. "Whatever you give her, I'm sure she'll love it as if it were the most valuable thing on the planet."

"Mornin' dudes!" Luna greeted them as she walked into the kitchen. "What are you guys talking about?"

"We were just giving Lio a little advice," Lynn Sr explained. "His friend's birthday is coming up and we just want him to know that he doesn't have to go all out when coming up with a gift for her."

"You mean Kat?" Luna asked, prompting Lio to nod his head. "Why don't you just draw something for her like you did for me and Sam on our second date?"

"I was thinking about doing that," Lio said. "But I just didn't think that that would be good enough for her."

"Oh, I get it," Luna said. "Kat's really special to you, eh bro?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Lio said, quickly catching on to Luna's insinuation and looking away.

"Oh, alright," Luna said. "But seriously, just do what you feel is right. Don't do anything extra or outlandish. Just do what comes naturally."

"I think you guys are onto something," Lio said before thanking his family. "I really appreciate the advice, I think I now have the perfect idea of what to do for her! What would I do without you guys?"

"Probably just hide in your room all day curled up in that hood of yours like a hermit" Lynn joked as she entered the room and sat down at the table with Lynn Sr handing her her breakfast. She noticed Lincoln shooting her a strange look and said "What? I'm just saying it wouldn't be out of character is all."

"Meh, guilty as charged," Lio said with an innocent shrug. "Thankfully, I've got you guys to help me keep a steady head on my shoulders." As he finished his apple, he shouted to Lynn "Yo, Lynn! Heads up!" before tossing the core at Lynn, who was sitting by the trash can.

Without missing a beat, Lynn jumped up out of her seat, grabbed the core in her hands and slam dunked it into the trash like a basketball star.

"And Lynn Loud with the alley oop slam!" Lynn celebrated, standing atop her chair. "The crowd goes absolutely wild!" She imitated the sound of a crowd chanting her name before being reprimanded by Lynn Sr.

"Lynn, what we said about standing on furniture?" He scolded her.

"Sorry dad," Lynn apologized as she sat back down. "Guess I just got caught up in the moment."

"I'm sorry too," Lio apologized. "I probably shouldn't have thrown my apple up in the air."

"It's alright," Lynn Sr said with a laugh. "Just try not to get so worked up in the future."

"I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for that to happen," Lucy said, her sudden appearance causing the five of them to jump in fright with Lincoln once again almost choking on his food.

"I swear you've got some creepy teleportation powers or something," Lynn muttered.

"Either that or she's a black magic woman," Luna chimed in.

"Isn't that the same term you used to refer to Luan when she escaped from our April Fools trap?" Lincoln reminded her.

"Yeah, escaped…" Lio mumbled under his breath before he feigned coughing as his eyes shiftily farted back and forth.

"Are you okay, Lio?" Lincoln asked. "Did you say something just now?"

"Huh, yeah I'm fine," Lio said quickly. "I didn't say anything, nothing at all."

"Sigh," Lucy said. "Don't expect me to divulge all my secrets with you. I have to keep some things private."

"Guess we'll just have to keep speculating on how you sneak up on us," Lynn Sr said with a hearty laugh before taking a look at his watch. "I wonder what's taking your sisters so long? It'll be time to head out in just a few minutes."

"Speaking of which," Lincoln said before turning to Lio. "You've got everything you need, right? Like that history project you talked about yesterday?"

"Got it safely tucked away in my backpack," Lio said triumphantly, giving a thumbs up. "Now I've just gotta make it to school safely without anything happening and I'll be home free. What about you, Linc? Got all your homework ready?"

"Yep," Lincoln said, thankful that Lio seemingly didn't pick up on his slip up as he hadn't meant to ask Lio so bluntly. "I put it in my bag last night to make sure I didn't leave it behind."

"Maybe I should learn to follow your lead," Lio said. "Probably would save me a lot of trouble."

"It's probably help if you weren't such a perfectionist," Lucy suggested. "No offense, but I've heard you working on projects of yours in the middle of the night just to make sure everything was just right."

"Sorry Luce, didn't mean to disturb you all those times," Lio apologized. "Guess I just get carried away sometimes."

"Don't worry, you didn't disturb me," Lucy told him. "I was already awake anyway."

"Doing what?" Luna asked.

"It better not have been trying to conjure demons again," Lynn piped up. "That incense smell lingered in our room for months."

"That was only one time," Lucy replied. "Will you let it go? Sigh." Lucy took a bite out of her breakfast and said "If you must know, I was working on an introductory eulogy for our Mortician's Club meeting tonight. We're supposed to be having two new members join us tonight and giving a eulogy is how we greet all our new members."

"That's a little creepy, but who am I to question it?" Was Lincoln's response to Lucy's remark.

Soon, the remaining sisters had all come down and were eating breakfast before getting ready to pile into vanzilla and head off to school. Having already eaten, Lio passed the time by getting to work on the art he was going to make for Kat. When it was finally time to leave, Lio held open the door for all of his siblings, wearing a satisfactory grin on his face as he did so. Though he seemed to be happy and in good spirits, Lincoln knew that he couldn't trust outward appearances.

"Hey, Lio?" Lincoln said, stopping in front of Lio as he walked out the door while their sisters loaded into vanzilla.

"Yeah?" Lio asked in confusion.

"Are you- Are you sure you're okay?" Lincoln asked. It was one more last ditch effort at getting Lio to open up. He doubted it would work, but he had to give it a shot.

"Yeah dude, I'm fine," Lio insisted with a smile. "Why do you ask?"

"No reason," Lincoln Lied before placing a hand on his brother's shoulder, looking him in the eye and telling him, "I just want you to know that if you ever need anyone to talk to about anything, If anything is ever bothering you at all, that you can talk to me."

For a brief second, Lio's smile wavered and he looked like he was going to tear up. In that moment, Lincoln thought that maybe he'd gotten through to him. That maybe he would be able to get Lio to let him in. Lio quickly recovered and got that smile back on his face, even bigger and seemingly warmer than it had been before.

"Thank you, Lincoln," Lio said, looking like he wanted to cry as he grabbed Lincoln in a tight embrace.

The twins' embrace was short lived however as they heard Lori honking vanzilla's horn to get their attention.

"While I'd love to sit around and watch you two hug it out, we don't have time for that!" Lori said. "Come on, let's go before we're late!"

"Sorry, Lori," Lio apologized before running and getting into the van. "Didn't mean time keep you waiting!"

"So close," Lincoln whispered to himself before he heard another honk of the horn accompanied by Lori yelling "Lincoln, what are you waiting for?"

"Coming!" Lincoln said before climbing into Vanzilla.

Lincoln didn't exactly have the best day at school, finding that he had a hard time focusing without thinking about his brother. Lincoln could only hope that Lio's day was going well. The last thing he wanted was for Lio to have another reason to go off on himself. Lincoln was still curious as to what he'd written last night. He figured he'd get the chance to find out soon enough. Internally, Lincoln berated himself for the fact that he was so eager to once again invade his brother's privacy. Then again, there was another voice in Lincoln's head telling him that this was a necessary evil. After all, if he did nothing, he'd be ignorant of the pain his brother was going through.

Ironically enough, Lincoln realized that Lio was right to keep such a tight lid on his diary out of fear of worrying his family. Lincoln had only read two passages in that thing and they had already taken up space in his mind. Lincoln did his best to push the thoughts out of his head so that he could enjoy his day, but he just couldn't. The effect it was having on him must've been obvious as Clyde, Stella, Liam, Zach, and Rusty all noticed his strange behavior. While Clyde was aware of what was bothering Lincoln, the others were oblivious as to what had gotten under his skin. Since he didn't want to just air his twin's dirty secrets, Lincoln refrained from letting them in on what was going on, even if getting advice from them would've been helpful. Lincoln crosses paths with Lio during lunch and to his credit, still appeared to be rather happy and cheerful. Though that might've had something to do with the fact that Kat was by his side. Seeing Lio laughing and having a good time with Kat helped ease Lincoln's fears and relax a little more. Thanks to that fact, Lincoln was able to freely enjoy the rest of his day.

When the school day came to a close, Lincoln was eager to get home. He and Clyde were planning on practicing for an upcoming video game tournament where the top prize was being scanned into the game and added as DLC characters. There was still one important thing that he needed to get out of the way first. Lio was currently out at the park with Lola, Lana, and Lily, leaving Lincoln with the perfect chance to do a little bit more snooping. Ascending the stairs up to their room, Lincoln pulled the shoebox out from under Lio's bed and retrieved the little pink book that rested inside. Upon opening the book, Lincoln flipped through the pages until he arrived at the most recent entry in the journal, which was dated yesterday. Just like the entries that came before it, this one was filled with nothing but self doubt and self loathing.

_Today I received two reminders that I don't deserve the good people in my life. First through my interaction with Kat and then later a conversation with my awesome twin brother, Lincoln. It honestly pains me that there is nothing I can do to repay all the kindness they've shown me. If I had the means, I'd give them everything their hearts desired and more. Heck, I'd do the same for all of my family, really. The fact that I can't do that makes me wanna just punch myself in the face with brass knuckles. They truly deserve the world itself, yet all they get is little ole loser Lio. Everyday I ask this question and I still have yet to receive an answer: how and why do they put up with me? After everything I put them through, how can they find it in them to smile in my face and tell me they care for me? I've done nothing that warrants them treating me with affection. Quite the opposite actually, I've given them every reason to hate me._

_Yet and still, all of them… Mom, Dad, Lori, Leni, Luna, Lynn and her boyfriend Chris, Lucy, Lola, Lana, Lisa, Lily, and especially Lincoln, Luan, and Kat find a way to tolerate me. They've stayed by me every step of the way even when it would've been more beneficial for them to just leave me in the dust. I genuinely cannot understand it, I just can't wrap my brain around why anyone would willingly engage with me. They tell me that they love me and I just don't know how to respond. Sometimes I just want to apologize when I hear them say that. I would literally move heaven and earth for all of them, yet it still wouldn't be enough to help repay the kindness they've shown me. _

_Wow, how pathetic am I that I can't even accept a simple act of genuine kindness without going off on a rant? Am I really that broken on the inside? No, broken isn't the word to use. Broken is for people who have been through traumatic experiences, who've dealt with the world at its worse. People who have bravely looked into the abyss and came out changed forever. It is not to be used to describe a whiny little 11 year old who can't accept so much as a compliment. Why am I even freaking out in the first place when today went off without a hitch. No mishaps or slip ups or screw ups whatsoever, just an average good day. Am I really so used to failure that the idea of having a good day has become surreal to me?_

_Alright, enough of my ranting, let's talk about exactly what happened today. Kat and I decided to hang out at the park while working on history project. We figured the change of atmosphere would maybe inspire us and give us more ideas that would help us complete our task sooner and boy did it ever. It only took us half an hour to finish the paper part of our project and even less time for us to complete the diorama for our project. Now the only thing left is presenting it in front of the class and as I've discussed in previous posts… oral presentations in front of an entire class are not strong suit. Which is Kat stepped up and offered to do most of the talking during our presentation to spare me the risk of passing out in front of a crowd again. When I asked her why she would do that for me, Kat looked me dead in the eye, smiled and said with all seriousness "Because I like you and I don't want you to have a panic attack again."_

_I swear to DIO that I do not deserve this girl in my life! She is way too good for me! The fact that she'd take the bullet for me like that… words cannot express how grateful I am. _

_That's why I'm beating myself up over the fact that her birthday is coming up and I still haven't come up with the perfect gift for her. When I asked her what she wanted, she told me it didn't matter and that I didn't have to get her anything. I'd be the most selfish jerk on the planet if I gave her nothing on her birthday so naturally I refused that idea. So she told me that it didn't matter what I got her because she'd love it anyway. Which brings me to my current dilemma. I wanted to draw her a picture, but I've since come to realize that this would be a horrible idea. "Happy Birthday, all I got for you was this drawing which probably means nothing since drawing is my hobby and I could literally make you something like this any day of the year if I wanted to, but for some reason I thought this would be special". Yeah, that's a real creative idea that I'm sure would go over well. I've still got a week to come up with something good, but all I'm drawing is blanks. I have a good amount of money saved up from commissions so maybe this weekend I'll take a walk with Kat around town and see if anything catches her eye. Perhaps that would be the perfect gift for her. Either way, I know that I can't leave her empty handed._

_If that wasn't kind enough, let me talk about my twin brother. This boy, this caring, cunning, clever, quick thinking man with a plan that I can't believe I share blood and facial features further helped me see how undeservedly blessed I was! Between him, Kat, and Luan, I honestly have to keep from crying. What's so stupid about me is that I'm gushing over something that's seemingly so unimportant, but means so much to me anyway. Almost as if he could sense my troubles, he asked me if I was doing alright. Our family and friends always joke that we have twin telepathy, but I'm starting to think we just might actually have just that. It pains me that I had to lie to him and tell him everything was okay, but what really did it for me was when I asked why he was asking. Lincoln told me that he was just doing what any good brother would do and checking up on me to make sure I was alright and my that really touched my heart. The fact that he was thinking about my wellbeing when he could've been freely enjoying himself. If you ever wonder why I aspire to be at least half as good as he is, there's your answer._

_My mask must've been slipping today because Lincoln wasn't the only one to notice my distress. Even after practising all this time, I still haven't perfected the art of hiding my emotions the way Lincoln has. Anyway, this time it was Onee-Chan who picked up on my behavior. She always was the sister I'd say I'm closest to so it's no surprise that she'd pick up on even the tiniest of oddities in my behavior. She asked what was wrong and once again I had to lie and tell her that everything was fine. I don't know if she bought it or not, but based off the look in her eyes, I'd guess that she didn't. She told me a couple of jokes and as usual I played along by exchanging puns with her for a few minutes, eliciting groans from our siblings who overheard us._

_Again, I can't understand how I haven't gotten on her nerves yet. Ever since I was 6, I've practically been by her side. Laughing along with almost every joke she made, coming to her for advice whenever I was upset, or acting as her assistant from time to time. There was even a period where I tried emulating her and for the first 3 years that I went trick or treating, I dress up as whatever she was going as. I think Mom even has a picture of her and I both dressed as The Joker. I can't even begin to imagine how annoying that must've been. Even today, I hang around her frequently whenever I'm not hanging out with Kat or working on my manga. It's like I'm her shadow or something. I can't even begin how grating it must be for her to have an annoying little Act 3 like me as a brother. That's part of the reason I've been kinda trying to avoid her as of late. Just to give her some breathing room._

_And just like the others, I can never repay her kindness. Even the one time that I tried to pay her back, I failed miserably. That was when I offered to act as her assistant whenever she was clowning at a birthday party. The very first party we were supposed to clown at, I ended up seizing up and becoming still as a statue when I saw the crowd and left her hanging, forcing her to throw the pie into her own face. She didn't seem particularly angry about it and even empathized with my plight, but needless to say our partnership didn't work out. I still feel bad that I let her down like that. Somehow, she still cares for me and tries to lift my spirits whenever I'm down. Another example of someone else showing me even more affection that I don't deserve._

_Maybe one day, I'll find a way to give as much back to them as they've given me, but for now I guess I'll have to-_

_Looks like I'm going to have to cut this entry short. It would appear that my writing has caused Lincoln to stir. I don't know if he's fully awaken from his sleep or if he just turned, but either way I don't wanna risk interrupting his sleep schedule. It is almost midnight after all. Closer to the start of a new day and closer to Kat's BDay. Maybe when tomorrow rolls around I can try and-_

"What are you doing?"

Lincoln was startled and nearly dropped Lio's diary as he turned around to see Luan standing in his and Lio's doorway.

"Nothing!" Lincoln lied, trying to hide Lio's diary behind his back. "What brings you to our room, Luan?" He asked with a conspicuous smile.

"I was looking for Lio," Luan explained. "Do you know where he is?"

"I think he's at the park with Lily and the twins," Lincoln explained.

"Why didn't you go with them?" Luan asked, joking "You go there all the time with Clyde to the point we might as well rename it to _Lincoln Park_!" She let out a cheerful cackle before asking "Get it?"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it," Lincoln said, rolling his eyes.

"So what's that you were reading?" Luan asked.

"What?" Lincoln feigned confusion as he kept Lio's journal held behind his back. "I don't know what you're talking about, I wasn't reading anything!"

"Then what's that thing you're holding behind your back?" Luan asked, reaching out to grab at the book.

"I'm not holding anything behind my back," Lincoln said, trying to keep up the facade even though it was clear the jig was up. "No, get away!" He shouted, doing his best to keep the diary out of Luan's reach.

His efforts failed as Luan manage to grab the diary from his hands after a short struggle.

"Lincoln! How could you?" She asked in a disgusted tone upon finding out who the diary belonged to. "Going behind Lio's back and reading his diary without his permission? How could you stoop so low as to take a page out of his book?" She giggles before saying "But seriously, why'd you go through his diary?"

"It's not what you think," Lincoln tried to tell her as he attempted to take the journal back from her.

"Then what is it?" Luan asked.

"Look, I know it looks bad, but I was only reading Lio's diary because I'm worried about him," Lincoln said.

"You sure have a funny way of showing your concern," Luan remarked.

"Haven't you noticed that Lio's been acting strange?" Lincoln asked her.

"Yeah, that's kind of the reason I was looking for him," Luan said. "I wanted to ask him what was up."

"Well he's not going to tell you," Lincoln said. "The only thing he's willing to confide in is this book and trust me, what's written in here isn't easy to read. It's actually rather depressing."

"What do you mean?" Luan asked.

"See for yourself," Lincoln said, taking the diary back, opening it up to the most recent entry and holding it up for Luan to see.

"Oh no, you are not getting me in on this," Luan refused, crossing her arms and looking away.

"Do you really want to know what's bothering Lio?" Lincoln asked and Luan nodded her head. "Do you really want to help him?" Luan nodded again and said "You say that as if invading his privacy is the only way we can help him."

"Because it probably is!" Lincoln replied. "Think about it, Lio usually comes to you whenever he's upset. If he's not willing to share with you what's going on in his head, who is he willing to tell?"

"What about Kat?" Luan answered back. "He seems to be pretty close with her."

"Not even her," Lincoln told. "He hasn't told even Kat about what's going on."

Luan huffed as she turned to face Lincoln as she asked "Are you sure that this is really the only way to find out what's up?"

"I hate to say this, but yeah," Lincoln said.

"Alright, fine, I'll look," Luan relented. "But only because you say this is the only way."

"Here's the most recent thing he's written in it," Lincoln said. "I figured it's important since you're directly mentioned in it."

Luan took a few minutes to read through what Lio had written. True to what Lincoln had said, she found it rather difficult to read. She knew that something had been up with her little brother, but never had she imagined it to be this.

"Is this really what he thinks of himself?" Luan asked after she finished reading. "That he's nothing but a nuisance? That he doesn't deserve our love?" Lincoln nodded and Luan asked "Is everything he wrote in this book the same as this passage?"

"I don't know," Lincoln answered. "I've only read 3 of his entries, but if I had to take a guess I'd say everything else in the journal is more or less the same. Especially since earlier he wrote that he was likely only going to use it for venting."

"Have you tried talking to Lio about this?" Luan asked.

"Twice," Lincoln said. "Both times he just acted like everything nothing was wrong. And I don't think he'd be exactly pleased if he found out we were reading his diary. He'd probably close himself off even more."

"I see," Luan said, placing her hand to her chin and adopting a thinking pose. "Hmm?"

"What?" Lincoln asked. "Have you got an idea?"

"I think this calls for an emergency sibling meeting," Luan said after much deliberation. "Tell the others to meet us in Lori's room ASAP."

"Right," Lincoln said, nodding his head.

"One more thing," Luan said. "Make sure Lio doesn't know about this since we're going to be talking about him."

"Got it," Lincoln said, giving a thumbs up as he texted the other siblings.

It didn't take long for most of the siblings to assemble. Lana, Lola, and Lily were the last to arrive since they were at the park and had to convince Lio to take them home without arousing his suspicion. Lio for the most part was none the wiser and as soon as the four got home, pulled out his phone and began texting with Kat, paying no attention to the affairs of his sibling. Not that he would want to interfere anyway as he figured he'd annoyed them enough as it was.

"So what's the reason behind this emergency sibling meeting?" Lisa asked. "Disagreements over chores again? Shampoo shortage? Did someone steal Lori's eyeliner again?"

"No, it's nothing like that," Lincoln tried to explain.

"Wait a second, aren't we missing someone?" Leni asked.

"Yeah, why aren't we including the otaku?" Lynn asked.

"Because the reason we called this meeting relates to him," Lincoln said, pulling out Lio's diary.

"Oh? We're talking about Lio and his secrets?" Lola asked, seeming intrigued when she saw his diary. "What did he do that's worth talking about? Did he steal money from Mom and Dad? Did he try burning down Flip's store!? What's the scoop?"

"He didn't do any of those things," Luan spoke up.

"Then why are we talking about him?" Lori asked. "If we're here to talk trash about him, we could literally do that to his face."

"We're not here to trash talk him," Lincoln said. "Especially when he already does a good enough job doing that to himself."

"What are you talking about?" Lucy asked.

"Listen, I'm just going to be honest," Lincoln said. "I was kinda reading through Lio's diary and…"

"Big deal," Lola interrupted. "I read through Lori and Luan's diary all the time."

That prompted a flat "What?" from both aforementioned sisters, causing Lola to recant her statement with a "I mean, I would read through their diaries if I were willing to slink so low. Heheh."

"Smooth save, sis," Lana quipped, rolling her eyes.

"Focus!" Lincoln Said, drawing attention back to him. "As I was saying, I read through Lio's diary and some of the things he's been saying about himself are really vicious."

"Well what exactly has he been saying about himself?" Leni asked.

"See for yourself," Lincoln said, opening up Lio's diary to a random page and reading off it. "You know, they say you should find the humor in every situation so why not start this entry off with a joke…"

_What's a three letter word for useless idiot? Lio, that's what! You know, most people say "the gods broke the mold when they made me" and I'd say that's the case for me as well. Except in this case, they intentionally broke the mold so that they'd never create a mistake like me again. That's precisely what I am: a mistake. Nothing more, nothing less. How else would anyone describe me? Well gee, isn't this entry off to a lovely start? To be fair, I did say this book was strictly for venting so I don't know why I expected anything less._

_And it's not like my life is miserable or anything or that I haven't had happy moments. I have tons of good memories that bring a smile to my face. The thing is that most of the times when I'm happy are when I'm doing stuff with my family or friends. Such as watching TV, or going to one of Lynn's games or playing Uno (even if J do always come in last place and end up with 50 cards in my hand by the end of it). Whenever I'm by myself with nothing but my thoughts, I'm almost always filled with despair. The only exceptions are when I'm working on art or drawing/writing my manga, but even then there are times when I can't bring myself to feel happy. Why is it that the only time I can relax and smile is when I'm in the company of my family. Especially when I'm pretty much antisocial around everyone else (with the exception of Kat, Chris, and Clyde). The more that I think about it, doesn't that make me a parasite? Yes, a parasite is the perfect description of me. I can only have happy times by leeching off of my family and friends. Yet, when it comes right down to it, I never give them anything in return. Nothing except my useless efforts. _

_Man, I use that word a lot don't I? "Useless". Whether it be in English or Japanese, I couldn't think of a more accurate adjective than that. My art? Useless! My manga? Useless! My hobbies? Useless! Me, myself? Useless, useless, useless, useless, useless, useless, useless! A worthless entity not worth caring for! A despicable fool who will only hurt you if you get too close! A scared, loathsome little boy too afraid to even try talking to people outside his bloodline. Someone who breaks down at the mere thought of talking to a stranger. A moron who has panic attacks when in the presence of crowds. A lowly imbecile who could easily be mistaken for trash! Scratch that, a lowly imbecile who deserves to be thrown in the trash. Someone whose soul is more disgusting than frog urine._

_That's the story of my life. Sometimes I compare myself to Johnny Joestar in that in terms of worth, I'm a negative who needs to raise themselves up to a zero. The difference between us is that Johnny eventually brought himself from negative to positive. Meanwhile, I have no chance at attaining redemption. There's no mystical Holy Saint corpse that I can use to purify and fix me. I'm stuck like this forever. I'm less than dirt, more lowly than dog poop in the middle of the road. The closest thing I have to a redeeming quality is that fact that I will always look out for my family. I will always do whatever I can to protect them. Anyone who tries to hurt them in anyway has to deal with my wrath. I won't even tolerate so much as a passing insult. Hurt my family and I will go full "ORA ORA" on your butt. And that warning extends to myself. Heck, it especially applies to myself. _

_I'd never want my siblings or friends to feel the same way I feel now: useless, worthless and hopeless. I may not be able to properly pay them back for everything they've done for me, but I can at least go out of my way to make sure they never have to experience what I'm feeling now. There's not an Angel in Heaven nor a demon in Hades that can stop me from helping them in their time of need. It is literally the least I can do for them._

_(There were noticeably a few tear stains on the page, but Lincoln continued reading anyway.)_

_I really do love all of them, I truly do. It's no exaggeration to say that I'd give my life for them. I can only hope that none of them would ever do the same for me. Not just because I'm not worth it, but because I don't deserve it. My life is expendable compared to theirs. It's why I still struggle to understand why they love me. Someone as reprehensible as myself. Sometimes I feel like I'm not even human, but rather an "it". Something akin to a monster._

_It's getting late and I think I can hear someone coming. I might want to put this away so no one sees it. I just know my family would flip if they saw what I wrote here. They'd probably never give me a moment's peace without watching my every move. _

_Signing off, **X**Johnny Joestar**X** Lio Loud._

"Did he really write all of that?" Luna asked, taking Lio's diary and reading it for herself, only to confirm Lincoln's account. "Wow, this is legit, he really did write this down."

"That was… frankly disturbing," Lucy said. "While I may like to dabble with death, no one's life is expendable."

"Was he being serious?" Lana asked, sounding scared. "About the whole being worthless and useless thing?"

"Please tell me that was just a one time thing," Lola said.

"The whole diary is filled with stuff like this," Lincoln said, nodding his head. "He's been writing stuff like this for months now."

"That is literally so messed up," Lori said. "I had no idea he felt this way."

"Neither did I," Lincoln said. "I only found out about this by accident."

"Guys, what are we going to do?" Leni asked. "We can't just let him keep doing this to himself."

"I agree," Lori said. "But what can we do?"

"Perhaps I could be of assistance," Lisa offered. "Maybe I could study his brain and chemically alter its makeup so that he feels better about himself."

"We are not experimenting on our brother," Luna said bluntly.

"I think I might have an idea," Lynn said.

"What is it?" Lincoln asked.

"Lio said that he feels like a useless parasite, right?" Lynn asked. "What if we all got together and showed him just how wrong he was. That might give him a swift kick in the rear and boost his confidence!"

"That might actually work," Lori said. "I think tomorrow we should hold another sibling meeting and this time, let's include our brother so that we can tell him just how not useless he is."

"Do you really think that'll work?" Lana asked.

"We have to give it a shot," Lincoln said. "I'm not going to just sit back and let him self destruct."

Thus, a plan had been devised. Failure was not an option. Lio mentioned that he'd do anything to keep his siblings from feeling the pain that he felt so it was only fitting that his siblings come together to do the same for him and alleviate the heartache he was experiencing. And if Lio didn't take their word for it, the siblings were more than willing to call up some friends to help make their point.


	3. Lucky Charm

While his siblings were discussing what to do to help him, Lio had been working intently on his birthday piece for Kat. He'd been so focused on his art that he hadn't even thought about his siblings. The thought of his diary hadn't crossed his mind in the slightest. He had more important issues at hand. He had to make absolutely sure that this art was 100% perfect. Not a single line out of place, not the smallest mistake in shading, not even an iota of anything that could be considered off-model. Kat was deserving of only the best and darnit, he was going to give her just that. Even though he still had 6 days until the big day arrived, he wasn't going to waste any time. He'd already redrawn the outline sketch of the piece 4 times. Lucy was right, he was a perfectionist as he wouldn't allow for even the tiniest flaw in his artwork, even if it was for the most part, unnoticeable. Lio was interrupted from his work when he heard a text message notification on his phone. Whipping it out, Lio saw that it was from none other than the girl he was slaving over.

While he had denied that he and Kat were dating, Lio would be lying if he said his heart didn't skip a beat every time he saw or heard from her. Luna was right when she guessed that Kat was special to him. Just being able to talk to her was enough to make him smile. He'd never admit it (at least not to his siblings aside from maybe Luan) but he'd grown to develop a small crush on her. Not that it mattered whether he admitted it or not as EVERYONE could see that fact. That wasn't all either as it was obvious to anyone who observed the two of them for more than two seconds that Kat reciprocated those feelings too. The siblings had even set up a betting pool on which one would ask the other out first.

In Lio's mind however, any feelings he had for Kat were pointless. Kat deserved so much better than someone like him. He was barely a good enough friend to her. How terrible would he be if the two were to start dating? He'd make for a horrible boyfriend. That was the one thing keeping him from pursuing his feelings as he was sure that Kat wasn't into him like that. She likely only saw him as a friend. It was these thoughts that further served to show just how mentally damaged he was. He truly was his own biggest enemy.

As he read the text Kat had sent him, Lio was surprised to see that she said she was coming over tomorrow. While he was certainly happy at the fact that this meant he'd see her again, he was curious as to why she was paying him a visit in the first place. There was a voice in the back of Lio's head telling him to just shut up and be grateful, but that didn't stop him from wondering. Little did the aspiring mangaka know that the reason for his friend's visit had something to do with the actions of the siblings he held so dear. He'd find out why soon enough.

"Alright, the text has been sent and Kat says she's in," Lincoln reported, looking up from his phone.

"So who all is coming again?" Lana asked.

"I asked Clyde to tag along," Lincoln said.

"I told Chris what was up and he agreed to lend a hand," Lynn said.

"Yeah, and Sam said she was coming over too," Luna said.

"And now with Kat, that makes 4 guests," Luan said.

"I really hope we can get through to him," Leni commented. "He normally seems so happy and carefree that you wouldn't expect this kind of thing from him."

"That's because he went to great lengths to keep us from finding out," Lincoln reminded her. "He's guarded this secret with his life because he didn't want any of us to worry about him."

"And I can see why," Luna said. "Some of the stuff he's saying I wouldn't even say to my worst enemy. Who wouldn't be worried after seeing that?"

"Are you sure that confronting Lio over his own private writings is the best approach?" Lisa asked. "Perhaps we'd be better suited to inform Mom Dad of his negative behavior and consulting a therapist. Or… failing that, employ an alternative approach that would be less likely to elicit a harsh response…"

"We are not rewiring our brother's brain!" Lori said. "There's no need to go to such extremes. Maybe if Lio hears that he isn't useless from people he cares about, it'll snap him out of this state that he's in."

"Do you think he might've… you know…" Lana asked before trailing off. Though she didn't say explicitly say it, the implication was clear, prompting Lincoln to vehemently reject it.

"No way! There's no way he would resort to that!" Lincoln insisted. "No matter how far he's sank, Lio would never go that far!"

"How can we be sure?" Lucy asked. "Who's to say there aren't any more secrets that he's keeping from us? Secrets that he hasn't even written in his diary?"

"Trust us, Lio would never do something of that nature," Luan said. "He's stronger than that, I know he is."

"But does Lio know that he's stronger than that?" Lola asked.

"Can we drop this?" Luna said. "This is making me really uncomfortable to think about. Can we just focus on tomorrow and making sure this goes off good?"

While the other Louds were discussing what would happen tomorrow, Lio was still working on Kat's birthday gift. The doubt had started to creep back into his mind that it wasn't good enough for her. The thought was making him lose his concentration, causing him to make a few mistakes in his art. Frustration started to build and Lio could hear that voice in his head just screaming "Useless, useless, useless" repeatedly. Lio took a look around and noticed that the house was oddly empty and rather quiet. Needing to vent some of his frustrations, Lio slowly creeped up the stairs and to his room. He thought it was strange all of his siblings had mysteriously vanished, but didn't think too hard about it, figuring that they were probably just busy.

Opening the door to his and Lincoln's room, Lio walked over to his bed and reached underneath to pull out that secret box of his. He just needed to get some things off his chest before he could return to work. Just needed to silence that voice in his head, even if it was only temporary. Lio had long since given up on silencing the voice permanently. It always came back whenever he did something stupid, which when it came to him, was rather frequent.

"If only I could make it up to zero" Lio whispered to himself as he opened up the shoebox, only to find it empty. Lio blinked twice, making sure he wasn't seeing anything before closing and reopening the box as if that would make his diary suddenly reappear. When it didn't, Lio let out a short, sudden, shrill shriek that got the others' attention. "Where is it!? Where in DIO's name is it!?"

Lio began looking around like a man possessed, wondering if he had perhaps just misplaced his journal after writing in it the other night. He practically dove underneath his bed, hoping to find the little pink book. He did his best to try and keep calm as the voice in his head berated him for being so careless. Lio hoped that his siblings hadn't somehow found it and read its contents. The reason he'd been keeping his emotional state a secret was so that he wouldn't burden them even more by causing them to worry about him. He didn't want them to jump to conclusions and keep a close eye on him out of fear of what he'd do if left alone. He'd been doing such a good job at keeping his problems out of their eye, putting on a happy face and smiling no matter what misfortune befell him. In hindsight, that probably made him come off as a stepford smiler and made the others suspicious. What did it say about Lio if he couldn't even conceal his own dark affairs effectively?

"You alright, bro?" Lio looked up to see Lincoln standing behind him, looking at him weirdly. "I heard you scream and thought-,"

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine," Lio lied with a nervous grin, a reversal of the situation from yesterday when Lincoln was the one telling fibs to his brother. "I-I-I… I just saw a spider is all."

"I thought you weren't scared of spiders," Lincoln pointed out. "I even remember you once licking a spider as "research" for your manga."

"I didn't say the spider scared me," Lio replied. "I just said that I saw one."

"And that's the reason you screamed?" Lincoln asked, prompting Lio to nervously nod his head. "Am I interrupting something, you look rather frantic as if you're looking for something."

"Yeah, I'm looking for that spider," Lio said after some quick thinking. "Don't want the little guy to get hurt, heheh" He looked at Lincoln to see if his twin bought it, breathing a slight sigh of relief when that appeared to be the case. "I mean, after all, you know how Leni feels about spiders."

"There was a spider!?" Leni asked, appearing behind Lincoln and frantically looking over her shoulder. "Where!? It isn't on me, is it!? Get it off, get it off, get it off!"

"Leni, there is no spider," Luan told her. "At least not one that I can see. Although then again, I could just be spinning a web of lies. HAHAHA, get it?"

"Oops, did I frighten you guys with me screaming?" Lio asked as he nonchalantly kicked them shoebox back under the bed while hoping they wouldn't notice. "Sorry about that, I just got surprised is all."

"Right…" Lincoln said before asking. "Are you sure you're alright? You look like you're hiding something."

"Pfft, please," Lio scoffed. "What could I possibly be hiding from you?"

"Your secret collection of boogers!" Lana chimed in.

"Ew, gross," Lio replied, looking disgusted. "No. Like no."

"A Magic Girl cosplay?" Luna asked.

"Oh please, I'd hardly hide that," Lio said. "Why would I be ashamed of a magic girl cosplay outfit considering I once dressed as Tequila Joseph."

"Wait a minute, weren't we just talking about how Lio was hiding his-," Leni said before Lori clamped a hand over her mouth and said "His birthday gift for Kat from all of us so that we wouldn't accidentally spoil the surprise. Yes, as a matter of fact we were talking about that."

Lio looked at them strange and asked "What are you up to?"

"Nothing," Lincoln said quickly. "What makes you think we're up to something?"

"No offense, but you guys are acting kinda strange," Lio answered.

"We're acting weird?" Lola replied, pointing at Lio and shouting "Lio, you're acting weird!"

There were a few seconds of awkward silence before Lio said "I think I'm just gonna go continue work on that picture I was drawing" and walking past his siblings. "I'll see you guys around."

"Wait!" Luan said, grabbing Lio by his arm. "Sorry if we startled you or unnerved you, but we just wanted to make sure you're okay." When Lio didn't respond, Luan continued. "I know that we can argue and fight sometimes, but you're still our brother and you're important to us."

Before he could stop himself, Lio looked Luan in the eye and asked "Why?"

He quickly tried to backpedal after that Freudian slip and asked "Why would you think that I didn't know that already? How could I not be important to you? I'm awesome!"

To say that he wasn't the best at feigning confidence would be a huge understatement as none of the other siblings bought his response (not that they would have after seeing the contents of his journal). Sensing this, Lio quickly ran back downstairs to continue his drawing, saying "Sorry, but I've gotta get back to work, can we continue this later?"

"This intervention can't happen soon enough," Lynn said, watching Lio descend the stairs.

* * *

The next day was a bright and beautiful Saturday. The absence of school meant that the Loud children could sleep in, which is something that most of them took full advantage of. While his siblings enjoyed their additional slumber, Lio hadn't gotten much sleep. The situation regarding his missing diary had him worried sick and he was convinced that his siblings knew more than what they were letting on. He had disabled his alarm so as not to awaken Lincoln and even went so far as to stay in bed longer than usual. On this morning, he got out of bed at his brother's normal time of 7AM. He was careful not to make any noise as he made his way to the bathroom to take a shower and get dressed.

"Alright, Lio, calm down," Lio said to himself as he washed his hair. "There's no guarantee that your brother or sisters found your diary. Maybe you just put it away somewhere different after writing in it the other night. I mean you were rather sleepy. We just have to calm down and look for it without anyone noticing."

It didn't take long before Lio heard a knock at the door. "Lio! Hurry up in there! I've really gotta go" He heard Lana say. "You've been in there for 10 minutes and I'm not paper trained!"

"Sorry!" Lio called out, finishing up his shower and throwing on his clothes as quickly as he could. "It's all yours." He said as he opened the door.

Lana didn't you waste any time and shoved Lio aside before rushing into the bathroom. After stepping out, Lio ran into his sister Lisa.

"Felicitations, Lio!" She greeted him. "You're a little late this morning, don't you think?"

"Well, you know, don't want to wake up Lincoln," Lio said, joking "You know how much he needs his beauty sleep."

"I thought that was Lola's thing," Lisa replied with the two sharing a laugh. "Say, do you think you can do me a favor?"

"Anything for you," Lio answered. "What do you need?"

"Nothing major, just a set of batteries for a remote to my new invention," Lisa said.

"What type of new invention?" Lio asked.

"Um… um…" Lisa struggled to come up with an answer. "It's a surprise… that I'll unveil to you and the family when it's finished."

"O…kay?" Lio replied.

"So can I count on you to pick them up for me?" Lisa asked.

"Sure thing," Lio said, running into his room to retrieve his red hood. "I'll be back before you know it!"

"Thanks Lio," Lisa thanked him. "I knew that I could count on you."

Hearing that compliment made Lio smile slightly as he head out the door.

"Is he gone?" Lori asked after Lio had left.

"Affirmative" Lisa said. "We should have approximately an hour before he returns."

"Alright, then let's get things ready," Lincoln said.

Lisa's estimate was correct as 55 minutes later, Lio was returning to the Loud House with the batteries as requested.

"Whoa, I can't believe it," Lio said to himself. "I actually did something right without messing up? Is it a sign of the apocalypse?" He was surprised when he opened the door to find that the living room was oddly vacant. "Huh, where is everybody? Normally this place would be in chaos right now."

"Lio, could you come and give me a hand with something?" He heard Lori yell from upstairs.

"Coming Lori!" Lio said, putting down the batteries and sprinting upstairs to Lori's room. "Yo, what's going on?"

Something he was not expecting to see were all his siblings gathered around accompanied by Sam, Chris and Clyde. The moment he saw all of them, he immediately got a bad feeling in his gut.

"We need to talk?" Lori said.

"Talk about what?" Lio asked before he spotted his own diary lying off to the side. "Oh crapbaskets…" Lio tried thinking of a way out of this predicament before caving and saying "I'll do whatever you want me to do, just…"

"If we were here to blackmail you, we would've done so already," Lola said.

"Then what is the meaning of this?" Lio asked.

"The things you've been writing here, man, they're just not…" Lincoln said before Lio interrupted him.

"Hold up, you've already read through my diary?" He asked. "What the heck, man!?"

"Well you certainly weren't going to tell us what was wrong," Lynn pointed out. "Do you really think we wouldn't notice when one of our own is acting strange?"

"What I write in **_my_** diary is my concern and mine alone," Lio started to say.

"Not when those things are nothing but lies," Leni said.

"Really?" Lio replied, crossing his arms indignantly. "And what exactly did I write in there that wasn't truthful?"

"The stuff you said about being useless for starters," Luan said. "There was also the things you said about being a burden, a waste of space, belonging in the trash, being "negative"," She took a deep breath before saying "And especially the stuff you said about your life being expendable."

"Seriously, what would make you think like that?" Lori asked.

"I dunno," Lio said sarcastically. "Maybe the fact that I'm a worthless, obnoxious twit who's always messing up!"

"So you make mistakes?" Chris chimed in. "It's no big deal, it happens to everyone. That doesn't make you worthless, it makes you human."

"Not when those mistakes include mishaps such as almost burning down the kitchen trying to bake cookies for mom," Lio retorted. "Or knocking out power to the whole house while changing a lightbulb." Lio looked away and said "Let's face it, I'm not even human, I'm just a mistake."

Lio felt someone place a hand and say "I wouldn't say that," Turning around, Lio was stunned to see that it was Kat, who was giving him a warm smile.

"I wasn't expecting you to swing by until later," He said.

"Who do you think called me to come over in the first place?" Kat retorted with a smirk, pointing at Lincoln.

"What? But why?" Lio asked.

"Because, we can't stand to see you like this," Lana said. "Which is why we set up this intervention so that we can help you see that you're not useless."

"That you're not inferior to anybody," Lucy chimed in.

"And most importantly that you're just as much of a Loud as the rest of us," Lincoln said.

"For real, bruh, I don't know where you got this useless idea from," Luna said. "You've helped all of us at least once. Like that one time Sam and I had that concert and I lost my guitar pic…"

"_Come on, come on, come on, it's gotta be here somewhere!" Luna said as she tore her and Luan's room apart. Hearing the commotion had gotten Lio's attention, who took a peek into the room to see what was going on. In the process, he ended up getting hit in the face by a book tossed aside by an absentminded Luna. "Where the bloody heck is it!?"_

_"Is everything okay?" Lio asked, clutching his head as he stepped inside._

_"No!" Luna replied, not even looking in Lio's direction as she searched under her bed. "You've gotta be kidding me! Of all the bloody nights that this could happen, why tonight?"_

_"Whoa, calm down," Lio said, hoping to console her. "What's going on?"_

_"It's Sam and my's first real gig as a duo and I can't find my guitar pic," Luna explained. "I've looked everywhere, but I can't seem to find it. It's almost as if it's vanished off the face of the Earth."_

_"No offense, but what's the big deal?" Lio asked. "You've got like hundreds of guitar pics, what does it matter if you lost one?"_

_"This wasn't just any old guitar pic!" Luna said, turning to face Lio. Judging by the look on her face, it seemed like she wanted to cry. "We're talking about my lucky guitar pic! The first one I ever had, the one I used when I won my first talent show, the one that I got autographed by Mick Swagger!"_

_"Ohhhhh," Lio said. "That guitar pic. I can see why you're so panicky"_

_"Since this is our first real gig since we officially got together, I thought it'd only be right if I used that pic," Luna said. "I've always used it for significant events in my life and now I can't find it!"_

_"Well what time is your concert?" Lio asked._

_"In two hours!" Luna answered. "But we've gotta be at the venue 30 minutes before showtime!"_

_"What if I helped you find it?" Lio offered._

_"You'd really do that?" Luna asked._

_"Sure," Lio shrugged. "It's not like I have anything better to do anyway."_

_"Thanks, bro!" Luna said as she went back to trashing her room in her efforts to find her pic._

_"Don't mention it," Lio said before asking "Where's the last place you saw your pic?"_

_"Last night I left it on my nightstand," Luna said. "Last time I saw it, it was still there. When I went to go look for it, it was gone." Luna growled and said "I swear if this is another prank by Luan, I am going to…"_

_"Calm down," Lio said. "I'm sure it has to be around here somewhere. If not in this room then somewhere in this house"_

_"Dude, I have an hour at most before I have to leave," Luna reminded him. "I don't have time to search the whole house for one small pic."_

_"Then let me do that," Lio said, with Luna asking "Huh?" And Lio responding "Like I said, I don't really have anything better to do. I was honestly just going to sit around and watch Lincoln play Sonic, but this seems more important."_

_"Are you sure you wanna do that?" Luna asked. "That could take you a while."_

_"For you, it's worth it," Lio said. "Know it might sound strange, but I'll check in the attic first and work my way down until I've reached the basement. I'll search every room in the house until I find it."_

_"What about Lori and Leni's? You know how Lori can be about people entering her room" Luna reminded him, prompting Lio to reply with a nervous "You know what, good point. Anyway, you keep looking here, I'll be right back."_

_With that, Lio ascended into the attic to continue his search. Personally, he doubted that Luna's pic would be here of all places, but with this family, there was no telling. There was one occasion where Lio had found one of his Sailor Moon figurines in the kitchen oven. There was also the time that Lola lost her tiara and found it in Walt's birdhouse. It wouldn't surprise him if he found Luna's pic amongst the many photo albums, family heirlooms and old music records. Of course, if he wanted even the slightest chance at finding it, he'd have to move all this stuff out of the way first. Lio took a look at his watch to check the time before getting down to business. He was determined not to let Luna down on this. With the crack of his knuckles, Lio got to work, first beginning his search in a box containing some of Dad's old rock albums. He figured it'd make sense to start here given Luna's love of music and the fact that the missing item could fell inside one of the album covers._

_Lio made sure not to get distracted by the number of gems stored in the box. There some real classics amongst Lynn Sr's records with albums such as Sheer Heart Attack, Off the Wall, Fragile, In the Court of the Crimson King, and 1999 to name a few. Maybe after all this was over, he could unearth their Dad's old record player and jam out. Admittedly, he wouldn't even be familiar with these albums if it weren't for the work of Hirohiko Araki and the musical penchant possessed by Luna. Following up on his theory that the pic could've fallen within the sleeves of the album's covers, Lio opened up each and every record he found, took out the album and looked inside before putting the albums back in their rightful places._

_As he was doing this, Lio looked through the other boxes surrounding him, hoping that by some stroke of luck he would find what he was looking for. Alas, his efforts turned out to be fruitless with no sign of the pic anywhere. As he stacked the boxes up until they back in the position, Lio felt a sneeze coming on on account of all the dust in the attic. Despite his best efforts, Lio couldn't hold it in and let out a tremendous sneeze, causing one of the boxes (filled with some of Lynn Jr's old trophies) to topple into his head, leaving him with a slight knot on his head as well as a minor headache. Back in her room, Luna heard the crash and wondered what Lio was doing to make such a ruckus. Fortunately for Lio, none of Lynn's trophies were severely damaged and it didn't take him long to put the box back where he'd originally found it._

_Taking another glimpse at his watch, Lio saw that only 15 minutes had passed, a surprisingly short amount of time given how long it felt like he'd been looking. Unfortunately, that also meant that Luna and Sam's gig was drawing closer and that he had less time to search through the other rooms of the house. Resolving not to fail Luna in her time of need, Lio came down from the attic and made a beeline for Lana and Lola's room. While he hated to jump to conclusions, Lio knew that Lola occasionally had a habit of "borrowing" things from her siblings without their knowledge. He was actually still a little torn up over the time she borrowed one of his kuriboh plushies for one of her tea parties and ended up spilling some tea on it (it took weeks to get the stain out). Lio took a peek inside the twins' room to make sure neither were present before stepping inside. He didn't know how he wanted to go about this. He couldn't just tear the room apart as he'd done in the basement or as Luna had done to her room. He'd have to go about this gracefully and with much consideration for his younger siblings._

_For that reason, Lio made sure not to misplace a single object as he looked through the room, going to great lengths to ensure the room would be the same as it was when he entered it. He didn't care check the girls' closet, feeling that it'd be a serious invasion of privacy. At least, more of an invasion of privacy then it already was at least. Thanks to his more cautious approach, it took Lio even longer to search through this room, taking a full 20 minutes for him to fully inspect. At the end of it all, there was still no trace of Luna's lucky guitar pic. Lio made a mental note in his head to apologize to Lola at the first opportunity for thinking she had something to do with its disappearance._

_Now all that was left was to check out Lisa and Lily's room, Lynn and Lucy's room as well as he and Lincoln's room. If Lio thought he'd have to be careful searching the twins' room, he was going to have to be extra careful treading into Lisa's room. It was a well known fact that Lisa took her experiments very seriously and didn't take well to them being tampered with. That wasn't even mentioning the various contraptions she had strewn about the room. Lio doubted that Lisa had anything to do with Luna's missing good luck charm, but there was always a chance that Lily had mistaken it for a toy and took it for herself._

_Opening the door to Lisa and Lily's room, Lio was greeted by an energetic "Poo poo!"_

_"Hey Lily," Lio greeted her, taking a second to walk over to her crib and lift her into the air before placing her back down. "I'm sorry, but I don't have much time to play with you, I'm looking for something very important."_

_Lily replied with a string of gibberish while looking quizzically at Lily. The only thing during said gibberish that Lio was able to make out was the word "Huh?". Nevertheless, Lio somehow knew exactly what she was saying._

_"Luna's lucky guitar pic," He answered._

_Lily responded with more random noises, prompting Lio to answer "You know, the one that she uses for significant events. The one she got autographed by Mick Swagger himself."_

_"Hmm…" Lily said before speaking in more gibberish._

_"Well, I've already checked the attic and the twins' room so this was the next place to look" Lio replied, getting another word salad of gibberish. "Well I'm kind of in a rush to get it to Luna before she and Sam go onstage for this concert they're playing which I why I look so… frantic."_

_There was more of the same with Lily spouting more nonsensical words and Lio answering her questions. "I don't know what Luna's guitar pic would be doing here, I just thought it'd be safe to check here before moving on."_

_"Blah!" Lily said, sounding offended._

_"I never said that you or Lisa took it!" Lio defended himself. "I'm just saying this wouldn't be the first time something lost ended up in a strange place. Like the time one of Lincoln's comic books ended up being found in the freezer."_

_"Wha?" Lily replied._

_"It's a long story, I'll tell it to you later," Lio said before lampshading how somewhat inane the situation was. "Wow, I really can't believe I'm holding a conversation with a baby and actually understanding everything she's saying."_

_"I'll say," Lisa said, stealing Lucy's schtick by startling him as she appeared behind him. "I'm curious as to how you utilize your free time if you've learned how to fluently comprehend speech from someone who hasn't even reached full verbal capabilities yet. I'm also curious as to what you're doing in my room."_

_"Lily, you mind explaining this one for me?" Lio asked._

_"Nuh-uh," Lily replied before playfully laughing._

_"As I told Lily, I'm here looking for Luna's lucky guitar pic," Lio explained. "She needs it for her concert and the thing seemingly vanished out of nowhere."_

_"And what causes you to think that it resides here of all places?" Lisa asked._

_"Just taking a look just in case," Lio said. "I mean, I don't expect it to be here, but I'll never know until I look."_

_"Really?" Lisa replied. "If that's the case, then I assume you've already checked the other rooms before venturing here, no?"_

_"Not quite," Lio said, rubbing the back of his neck. "After looking here, I've still gotta check out my room and Lynn/Lucy's room."_

_"Not taking the risk of angering Lori by intruding her room, are you?" Lisa asked._

_"No," Lio said bluntly._

_"Well, I can't say I blame you for deciding to make that decision," Lisa admitted. "However, if you're hoping to find that missing guitar pic here you're sadly mistaken. I can assure you that there is no trace of it anywhere within these four walls."_

_"Do you mind if I still look just to be safe?" Lio asked._

_Lisa sighed, saying "If you insist. After all, it's your time that you're wasting."_

_"Time? Crapbaskets!" Lio said, looking down at his watch. "I've only got 25 minutes before Luna's set to head out! I've gotta pick up the pace!"_

_Lio quickly began looking around Lisa's room, checking every nook and cranny of the room._

_"Just be careful not to disturb my work," Lisa warned him. "Some of my most recent experiments are extremely dangerous and could have adverse side effects if you were to be exposed to the chemicals used for them."_

_"Got it!" Lio said, giving a thumbs up with Lily giving him a smile as she watched him frantically search._

_Ultimately, this search produced no results either, but fortunately only took up 5 minutes of Lio's time, leaving him with 20 minutes to spare. He could devote 5 minutes each to looking through both his room and Lynn/Lucy's before going downstairs to look, but he had to hurry. The first of these rooms he'd check would be Lynn and Lucy's. Honestly, he was hoping to get this room out of the way first since he knew Lynn might be a bit aggressive if she found out he was invading her space. Luckily for him, Lynn was nowhere to be seen as he entered the room. Lucy didn't appear to be present either from the looks of things. However, as Lio was well aware by now, looks could be deceiving._

_"Can I help you with something?" Came a monotone voice from behind him that caused Lio to jump in fright._

_"What the? How the?" Lio stammered before regaining his composure. "Where did you come from?"_

_"Considering the fact that you're in my room, I think I'm better suited asking you that same question," Lucy replied._

_"Long story short, Luna lost her lucky guitar pic, has a concert with Sam that she has to be at in a few minutes and I'm trying to find it before she heads out," Lio said in one breath._

_"Oh. Right," Lucy said. "I remember her mentioning this gig a couple of weeks ago. Apparently, her and Sam are opening for a huge Japanese rock band. She's been looking forward to this for weeks."_

_"Yeah, which is why I'm desperately trying to find it," Lio said. "I've looked almost everywhere but come up with nothing."_

_"And I'm guessing that's why you're here now," Lucy said._

_"Yeah," Lio said. "I'm running out of places to look and I really need to make sure I haven't missed anything so do you mind if I look through here?"_

_"Sigh," Lucy replied before telling Lio. "Just don't touch Edwin, okay?" She then added "By the way, you might wanna be quick about this. Lynn's set to be back any second now from practice."_

_"I'll be out of here before you know it," Lio promised as he went to work examining the room._

_He made sure not to disturb Edwin or any of Lynn's sports memorabilia. The last thing on his mind was getting on Lynn's bad side. Working with the little time he had available, Lio did a simple quick sweep of the room, making sure not to dwell too long on any particular area. All the while Lucy silently watched to make sure he kept his promise of not bothering Edwin in any way. If he did, he'd have more to worry about than Lucy simply jump scaring him. At the end of it all, there was still no guitar pic in sight._

_"Did you find it?" Lucy asked._

_"No," Lio said. "Looks like this was another bust. Sorry for bothering you."_

_"You didn't," Lucy told him. "Good luck finding it."_

_"Thanks," Lio said, making a beeline for his and Lincoln's room next. It was the last place left to look before looking downstairs._

_Since it was his own room he was looking through, Lio had no qualms about turning it upside down to look for Luna's pic. He made sure to be careful with Lincoln's stuff as he did so, but otherwise was thorough in his search. He looked underneath Lincoln's bed, his own bed, checked both of their bookshelves, searched the desk that they shared and even looked behind said desk in an effort to find the missing instrument. Now truthfully, this was the absolute last place he expected to find Luna's lucky charm, but it was only fair that he gave a full search through his own room as he'd done to the girls. Once again, he came up with nothing. Feeling dejected in having failed Luna so far, Lio made his way downstairs when he crossed paths with Luna herself with the latter carrying her guitar case._

_"So dude, any luck?" Luna asked. "Did you find it?"_

_"Afraid not," Lio frowned before assuring Luna "But don't worry, I promise I'm going to find it for you."_

_"Don't bother," Luna told him, sounding extremely let down. "It's too late for that."_

_"What do you mean?" Lio asked. "You've still got 10 minutes left."_

_"That doesn't matter," Luna said. "I'm never going to find that pic in time." She sighed before continuing "And besides, Sam's mom is here to pick me up and take us to the venue. I can't keep them waiting."_

_"Wait, Luna…" Lio pleaded. "Just give me a few more minutes and I promise I'll-,"_

_"Don't worry about it, you did the best you could," Luna said. "Thanks for your help, little bro."_

_"Luna, I-," Lio tried to say as Luna walked out the door, closing the door behind her. Lio felt terrible about letting her down as he walked into the living room to find Lincoln playing video games._

_"Hey man, what's up?" Lincoln asked. "I thought you were going to watch me LP Sonic Mania"_

_"Sorry, Lincoln," Lio apologized, sounding just as disappointed as Luna had. "I was trying to help Luna find her good luck charm, but as with everything, I failed."_

_"Dude, don't beat yourself up over it," Lincoln said as he paused the game to pat Lio on the back. "You did the best you could."_

_"And my best wasn't good enough," Lio sighed before half smiling and asking Lincoln "But hey, now that I'm here, how about I get you some snacks?"_

_Turning to walk into the kitchen, Lio tripped over something and hit his head hard against the floor._

_"Oh my gosh, are you okay?" Lincoln asked, helping Lio to his feet._

_"Yeah, I'm fine," Lio said, clutching his head. "What the heck tripped me up?" Looking down, Lio saw that it was Charles dog bowl, causing him to scratch his head. "Why is Charles' dog bowl here instead of in the kitchen?"_

_As he picked up the bowl, Lio could see a glimmer of light bounce off of something at the bottom of it. Taking a closer look, Lio found that it was none other than the missing pic he'd been searching for for almost an hour._

_"Oh my Dio, are you kidding me!?" He yelled in frustration._

_"What is it?" Lincoln asked._

_"I found it!" Lio exclaimed. "I found Luna's guitar pic! Dang it, why couldn't I have found this thing literally 2 minutes ago!?"_

_"Lio, relax," Lincoln said. "Don't freak out. I'm sure if you hurry you can catch up to Luna before she leaves."_

_"Hopefully," Lio said before rushing towards the door. "Sorry to leave you hanging, Linc, but I've gotta get this to Luna!"_

_"Eh, it's fine," Lincoln assured him as he ran out the door._

_Lio found himself arriving just a little bit too late with Sam's mom's car pulling off just as he made it outside._

_"Crapbaskets!" He cursed, trying to chase after the car to no avail. Not willing to give up just yet, Lio grabbed Lincoln's skateboard and one of the twins' jump ropes before he took off towards the venue._

_Lio knew a shortcut that would get him to the venue just after Luna and Sam got there if he played his cards right. That shortcut involved hopping the fence to one of the neighbors backyard and cutting through several other yards to get to the bus stop. Lio hopped the first three fences no problem, but upon trying to hop over a fourth ended up climbing atop a loose fence panel, causing it to give way and send him toppling into a rose bush._

_"Ouch, DIO darn it, son of a-," Lio swore as he crawled from out of the thorny, prickly plant, being covered in cuts and having a portion of his shirt ripped out. That wasn't the end of Lio's problems as he found himself staring face to face with an angry dog. "Ohhhhh… crapbaskets!" He muttered before scrambling for his life towards the other end of the yard as the dog nipped at his backside._

_Lio managed to make it over the final fence and over to the other side, but not without sustaining a bite to his right leg, causing it to bleed and ripping up his jeans. Whether he was fueled by adrenaline or determination to help his sister, Lio didn't know, but he blocked out the pain and continued trekking towards the bus stop. The plan had been to take the bus to the venue the girls were playing at before they were set to go onstage, but that idea didn't exactly go as expected either with Lio arriving at the bus stop just as the bus was pulling off. Fortunately for Lio, that's where the skateboard and jump rope came in handy._

_"You've got to be kidding me," Lio said as he used the skateboard to get close enough to the tailgate of the bus for him to lasso onto it and ride behind it._

_Much to Lio's surprise, this last second improvisation went just as planned with Lio riding smoothly behind the bus on his skateboard. The only real challenge was keeping his balance so as not to fall off the board and face plant into the ground. After a few minutes of smooth sailing, the bus came to a stop just outside the venue. Unfortunately for Lio, he had failed to take into account one important detail and that was coming to a stop after the acceleration he'd built up._

_"Didn't think this through…" Lio moaned, trying and failing to bring himself to a stop before he slammed face first into the back of the bus. "Ouch, I feel like I have taken way too many hits to the head today." He said as he picked himself up off the ground and got his bearings back._

_With the pic safe in his pocket, Lio made his way into the venue and went backstage to find Luna and Sam. It didn't take long for him to find them._

_"Luna! Luna!" He yelled out to get her attention._

_"Lio?" Luna asked upon seeing him and his disheveled state. "What are you doing here?"_

_"And what on Earth happened to you?" Sam asked._

_"I promised you that I was going to find your guitar pic and bring it to you," Lio said, smiling triumphantly as he presented the pic to Luna. "And I did just that."_

_"That's great and all, but what happened to you?" Luna asked. "You look like you've been through a tornado"_

_"I kinda had a few mishaps trying to get here before you went on," Lio said before explaining in full._

_"You went through all that just to get Rockstar her lucky pic?" Sam asked, turning to Luna and saying "You've got a seriously awesome little brother, Rockstar!"_

_"Eh, it was no big deal," Lio said, trying to be humble._

_"No big deal?" Luna retorted. "You risked your health just to help me out, that's a pretty big deal if you ask me."_

_"I know right!" Sam said in agreement. "My little brother would never do something like that for me!"_

_"Ms. Loud, Ms. Sharp," A stage assistant called out. "Sorry to spring this on you last minute, but one of our other opening acts couldn't make it. You're going on in five minutes and your set has been expanded to an hour."_

_"Are you serious?" Luna and Sam asked, brimming with excitement. When the stage assistant nodded, both girls let out an excited squeal._

_"See luv, I told you this pic was lucky," Luna said to Sam._

_"Alright, alright, I believe you now," Sam giggled._

_"Well, looks like I'm not needed here anymore," Lio said. "I'll be in the crowd cheering you on. Knock em' dead you two!"_

_"Thanks for all your help, little bro," Luna said, taking a moment to give Lio a huge hug before doing last minute preparations and heading onstage._

_When the show began, true to his word, Lio_ _was in the audience, cheering on Luna and Sam with all his heart. He wouldn't dream of missing this for the world._

"Our act literally wouldn't have gone as well as it did if it weren't for you," Sam said to Lio. "Not to mention that we've taken far more bookings after the positive reception from that show."

"I guess you could say that," Lio said, looking down at his feet. "But what if it was just a stroke of luck? I had nothing to do with it!"

"Even if that wasn't the reason for our last second break, the show still wouldn't have gone the way it did if you hadn't brought me my lucky guitar pic," Luna said. "My mojo would've been all kinds of thrown off and I might not have played as well as I did…"

"You really think so?" Lio asked, looking up.

"Dude, I know so," Luna said in a matter of fact tone. "There's still just one thing about the story I don't understand."

"What's that?" Sam asked.

"How did my pic end up in the dog's food bowl in the first place?" Luna asked.

"Maybe it's best not to think about that!" Lana said quickly before moving to change the subject. "Hey, since we're sharing stories about the times Lio's helped us out, how about I tell mine…"


	4. Candy Crush

_It was your average Thursday afternoon when Lana came kicked in the door of the Loud House, startling Lincoln, Leni, Lola, and Lori who were watching TV on the couch._

_"Guys! Guys! Guys!" She said excitedly, looking as if she was about to burst from excitement. "You're never going to believe what just happened to me!"_

_"What?" Leni asked._

_"So remember last week when I signed up for the animal care club at school?" Lana asked._

"_Yeah, I remember you seemed really hyped about joining," Lincoln said._

_"Well today it's official!" Lana said. "I'm an official member of the club and we have our first meeting tomorrow!"_

_"Oh my gosh, that's great!" Leni said. "What do you have to do to be in this club_?"

_"Well, like the name says, we mostly just take care of animals," Lana answered. "Some of them are strays, others come from homes with abusive owners and some we're just nursing back to health before releasing them back into the wild."_

_"Caring for them how?" Lola asked._

_"Oh, you know," Lana said. "Feeding them, bathing and grooming them, making sure they get plenty of exercise, that sort of thing."_

_"I don't know, Lana, that literally sounds like a hug task for you to take on," Lori said. "Are you sure you can handle that?"_

_"Sure I can, it's just like taking care of the pets that we have," Lana said. "Only on a much larger scale."_

_"Still, it sounds like a lot for a kid your age to take on," Lincoln pointed out. "No offense."_

_"None taken," Lana said before revealing "I'm actually the youngest member of the club. You actually have to be at least 8 years old to join, but after I told them about my experience around animals (and them finding out about the frog incident), they made an exception and let me join!"_

_"Just how many animals will you be looking after?" Leni asked._

_"I don't know, somewhere between 12 to 20," Lana answered cheerfully._

_"And you're sure that you can handle all of that?" Lori asked. "That literally sounds like it'll be too much work for you."_

_"I'll be fine," Lana insisted. "I promise that it'll be light work."_

_"If you say so," Lola said. "Just make sure you don't bite off more than you can chew."_

_"I'm telling you, I'll be fine," Lana said. "I bet babysitting Lily would be tougher than being a part of the club." Lana glanced at her watch and said "Oh man, I've gotta go make sure I've got everything ready for tomorrow: gloves, animal feed, pooper scooper…" the last one resulted in a grimace from her family._

_"Do you wanna borrow my dog whistle?" Lola offered._

_"What? No way!" Lana replied. "Those things are like torture to certain animals' ears. I could never mistreat them like that. Seriously though, I've gotta go get my stuff ready! Catch you later!"_

_"Good luck, Lana!" Lincoln called out as Lana eagerly ran upstairs, excited for what tomorrow held in store for her._

_The next day, late in the afternoon Lana stumbled through the door, covered in dirt and looking absolutely exhausted. Noticeably, even her signature red hat had taken some damage, looking like it had had a huge bite taken out of it. Lana being covered in dirt and grime was nothing exactly new for her, but what was out of the ordinary was seeing just how worn out she looked. She looked like she'd been through a war zone and appeared to be so weak that a single gust of wind would send her sailing through the air like a cannon. Her legs were shaky as if they could barely support her weight for longer than a few seconds. Sure enough, moments later, Lana's legs gave out on her, causing her to collapse face first onto the floor. Unfortunately for Lana, there was no one there to catch her fall except for Lio who reacted a little too late._

_"Oh my DIO, I'm so sorry Lana!" Lio apologized as he rushed over to Lana and helped her up to her feet. "Are you okay?"_

_"Yeah… yeah, I'm alright," Lana said, taking several deep breaths. She gently pushed Lio away, insistent on standing on her own two feet without assistance. Unfortunately for her, she was just too tired to do so, causing her to almost fall back into the ground. Luckily, this time Lio was there to catch her. "Oh great, now my legs don't wanna work…" She let out a humorless chuckle as Lio picked her up in his arms and carried her over to the couch before gently placing her down. "Thanks, Lio."_

_"Don't mention it," Lio said before asking "I'm curious though, what happened to you that's got you so drained?"_

_"Ughhhhh…" Lana groaned. "So remember that animal care club I mentioned yesterday?"_

_"Not really, I don't think I was here," Lio said truthfully. "But Lincoln and Lola filled me in so I know what you're talking about." He took a good look at Lana and asked "What happened?"_

_"They were right," Lana admitted, sounding close to tears. "I did bite off a bit more than I could chew."_

_"What do you mean?" Lio asked._

_"I wasn't expecting today to be so rough," Lana admitted. "It was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be and I'm completely worn out. Like, I didn't think caring for animals could be so difficult. I thought it would just be like taking care of 10 Charles or something."_

_"Yikes," Lio said. "Sorry to hear that today didn't go as planned. So what are you planning to do now?"_

_"I don't know," Lana said. "I can't quit. I mean after all, Louds never quit, right? And at the same time, I've never backed away from a challenge, but this club might just actually break me if I keep going."_

_"Hmm, maybe I can help you out," Lio offered._

_"What do you mean?" Lana asked._

_"Maybe you just need something of an assistant to lend you a hand," Lio said._

_"Would you really do that for me?" Lana asked before having a thought. "Wait a second, I thought people terrified you, what's your reason for tagging along? You're not just doing this so you can get inspiration for your manga, are you?"_

_"No, of course not," Lio answered. "It's true I don't like being around people that I don't know, but I do have a soft spot for animals that kind of supersedes that fear."_

_"So you promise that you're not doing this for your own benefit?" Lana asked, wanting to make sure Lio didn't have ulterior motives._

_"Lana… you're my little sister, I wouldn't lie to you like that," Lio said, sounding slightly hurt by Lana's insinuation._

_"Alright, then it's settled," Lana said. "I'm not going to let one little day stop me from doing what I love!"_

_"That's the spirit!" Lio encouraged. "And I'll be right by your side to help you out."_

_"Thanks," Lana said. "But man, I'm still exhausted after today. I feel like I need a nap or something." Lana rolled off the couch and tried to get up, only to find that her legs were still jelly, causing her to collapse to the floor once again. "Um… little help here?" She muttered, trying in vain to pick herself up._

_Lio simply silently nodded as he picked Lana up off the floor and carried her up the stairs and to her and Lola's room. Lana wasn't joking when she said she needed a nap, falling asleep in Lio's arms halfway up the stairs. Lio honestly couldn't help but crack a smile at how adorable she looked. Once he reached the twins' room, Lio gently placed Lana down on her bed for a peaceful slumber._

_He started wondering just what that club had put her through if they'd managed to drain her like this. Lana was normally spunky and almost always full of energy. Seeing her so tired that she couldn't even stand and fell asleep within a matter of seconds was kinda intimidating to the otaku. Nevertheless, he was going to fulfill his promise and accompany Lana to her club meeting tomorrow. No matter what happened, he was going to do whatever it took to take as much load off of Lana as possible. Taking one last look at Lana, Lio smiled before heading to his own room to make preparations for tomorrow._

_The next day, following the end of the school day, Lio and Lana reported to the animal shelter to start their day. Lana was still kinda nervous about how today would play out as was Lio. Going off what Lana had told him, he was expecting to be absolutely put through the wringer. When the two arrived at the shelter, they were greeted by a young woman wearing an orange T-shirt and shorts. Judging from the smile on her face, she seemed eager to see them._

_"Welcome back, Lana!" She greeted Lana. "We're so glad that you could join us again today." When she noticed Lio, she kindly asked "Oh, and who's this? Did you bring a friend along to partake in our activities?"_

_"Hey Julia," Lana said before introducing Lio. "This is my older brother, Lio. He tagged along to give me a hand today."_

_"Well it's nice to meet you Lio!" Julia said cheerfully while Lio shrunk back behind Lana, his shy nature getting the better of him. "So nice that you came to help us because let me tell you, we have a lot on our plate for today."_

_"Really?" Lana asked, not liking the sound of that._

_"Yeah, we ended up finding an injured deer in the woods early this morning," Julia said. "Poor thing got one of its legs caught in a bear trap."_

_"Oh no, that sounds terrible," Lana said with Lio nodding his head in agreement._

_"It truly is," Julia said. "Fortunately, one of our veterinarians was able to treat its leg wound, now it's just a matter of getting the deer to eat something."_

_"Well don't worry about that, Lio and I will do our best," Lana assured her. "It's nothing that we can't handle._

_"That's great!" Julia said. "We also have a Great Dane named Roger that we rescued from poor conditions. The house we found him in was horribly cluttered and absolutely filthy to the point the floor wasn't even visible with all the trash and droppings on the ground. The big guy also looked like he'd been malnourished for quite some time, so be sure to give him plenty of love as you're feeding him."_

_"Will do!" Lana replied. "Anything else?"_

_"We have a trio of stray kittens we found on the side of the road this morning," Julia informed her. "Now they appeared to be in good health overall, looking like they'd been fed and taken care of. Right now we're just making sure they don't have fleas, ticks or any other conditions that could be detrimental to their health. Just like Roger, these girls are in need of some tender loving care so be sure to give them plenty of love."_

_Lio's eyes noticeably lit up like a Christmas tree at the mention of cats as a smile spread across his face, making him look like a kid in a candy store. This caused Julia to ask "What's up with your brother?"_

_"Oh, he just really really likes cats," Lana explained. "Occasionally he even acts like one"_

_"Oh, that's adorable," Julia giggled. "For a second I thought something was wrong, but I'm glad to know he has a soft spot for cats. He should do a great job."_

_"Is that everything?" Lana asked. "Is there anything else you may need us to do?"_

_"Not at the moment," Julia told her. "We're trying to divide work evenly between club volunteers for better ebb and flow." Julia then gestured for the pair to follow her, saying "Since you two are siblings, I think I'll pair you up together."_

_"Sounds good to me," Lana said, following Julia._

_Julia lead the siblings to a playpen like area, which is where they saw the deer Julia had described. It sat in the far corner of the pen, looking around with concern and occasionally trying to stand on its leg, only to quickly collapse to the ground and let out a whine. Lana and Lio could see that it was the deer's left front leg that had been injured, being heavily bandaged and taped up._

_"This is Walter," Julia said. "The deer I was talking about earlier. As I've said, we've been trying to get it to eat but nothing seems to be working. We don't know if it's because Walter is afraid of us or some other reason, but he's been very uncooperative."_

_"I'm sure that we can get him to eat something," Lana said. "Just give us some time and we'll have him back to 100% in no time."_

_"Try not to be aggressive with him," Julia told her. "We don't wanna risk intimidating him or causing him to become more rebellious."_

_"You have nothing to worry about," Lana said. "We'll take good care of him."_

_"Great," Julia replied, telling Lana and Lio. "I'll leave you two to get started with Walter before you tend to Roger and the kittens. Just let me know if you need any help!"_

_"Got it," Lana said, with her and Lio giving a thumbs up._

_"I'll notify the two of you if we have anything else we need you to do, but for right now just focus on the task at hand," Julia said before walking off._

_"Hmm, this doesn't seem so bad," Lio said to Lana as they walked over to Walter._

_"Yeah, that's what I thought at first too," Lana replied. "But trust me, this job is going to get really tiresome really fast."_

_"Well, it's a good thing you have me here to lend you a hand," Lio said cheerfully as the two came to a stop a few meters in front of Walter._

_The deer noticeably began quivering at the sight of the children, shaking with fear. Walter once again tried to stand back up and from the look in his eyes, even wanted to make a run for it, only for the pain in his appendage today stop him immediately. Letting out another whine, Walter sat back down as the two backed away slightly to give him some space. It quickly became apparent that Walter had developed a fear of humans and didn't want anything to do with the children trying to help him. That wasn't going to stop Lana and Lio from trying however with both resolving to help the scared animal. Remembering that they were supposed to try to feed Walter, Lio retrieves a bowl of fruit and nuts while Lana cautiously approaches the deer._

_"Calm down, don't worry," Lana said softly, trying to coax Walter into a sense of safety around her. "I'm not going to hurt you, it'll be okay." Hearing Lana's voice somehow got the deer to calm down as he lowered his guard and allowed Lana to approach him. "There, there, it'll all be alright," She said as she gently pet Walter behind the antlers._

_Seeing this, Lio thought that he'd make an attempt at approaching the injured deer. Walter didn't take to Lio as kindly as he did with Lana, immediately becoming more panicked and frantic. He shook his head back and forth and started to whine a little more before Lana was able to calm him down yet again._

_"No, no, no," Lana said. "Don't worry, he's not going to hurt you, he's friendly." Walter looked at Lana as if questioning her, prompting Lana to continue "Trust me, he's my big brother. He wouldn't hurt a fly." She stopped to reconsider that statement, saying "Well, not unless that fly was an old fat human named Flip, but you have nothing to worry about."_

_Walter nodded his head and allowed Lio to draw near. Lio exercised caution as he approached Walter with the bowl of fruit. Strangely enough, both of them seemed to be afraid of one another, but nonetheless showed courage by refusing to acknowledge it. Lio tiptoed in front of Walter and placed the bowl of fruit down in front of him. Seeing that there was nothing to be afraid of, Walter responded kindly to the boy and allowed him to gently pet his head as Lana had done._

_"See, I told you there was nothing to worry about," Lana said to Walter as the latter nuzzled his head against her. "Now it's just a matter of getting you to eat, are you hungry?"_

_Walter nodded his head and lowered his head to take a bite out of one of the fruits, causing Lio to remark "Wow, that was easier than I expected."_

_"Maybe Walter here just gets along better with kids than adults," Lana suggested._

_"That makes sense," Lio said before taking a step back. In the process he ended up slipping on some acorns that had fallen out of the fruit bowl he'd brought to Walter. "Whoa!" He shouted as he struggled to keep his balance._

_The sudden shout combined with his quick uncanny movement caused Walter to almost instinctively panic and use his antlers to toss Lio up high into the air. Lio flew several meters through the air before hitting the ground hard, knocking him for a loop._

_"Lio!" Lana cried out as Walter looked at her apologetically. Lana pet him once again to calm him before rushing to tend to Lio, who was sprawled out on the ground and seeing stars. "Lio? Lio, are you okay?"_

_"No, I would not like some OJ…" Lio said in a state of dazed delirium. "Could I get some fries with that order?"_

_Lio passed out for a short time before coming to and grabbing at his head. Luckily, he hadn't been seriously injured from the throw and was back on his feet in no time with nothing aside from an aching cranium. Lana finished tending to Walter and making sure he ate before moving on to check on Roger. Neither sibling knew what to expect as they entered the dog's area, but were surprised when the Great Dane excitedly ran towards them and even jumped on Lio, tackling him to the ground. Despite being somewhat skinny, Roger was still a rather large dog, which explained why he was able to flatten Lio._

_"Whoa, well aren't you energetic?" Lana said, scratching Roger underneath his chin as he panted happily._

_"Um, little help here," Lio squeaked, squashed beneath Roger._

_"I see you've met Roger," Julia said, coming back in to check on the two children. "As you can see, he's a huge bundle of joy and really friendly with visitors."_

_"Yeah, I've noticed," Lio squeaked yet again before asking again "Help?"_

_Fortunately, Roger got off of Lio and allowed him back into his feet as Lana affectionately pet his head._

_"Awwwww, who's a good boy?" Lana cooed, scratching behind his ears. "You are, yes you are."_

_"I'd even go so far as to say he's the goodest boy" Lio said, taking a moment to also pet the friendly dog._

_"Looks like you two have taken just as much of a liking to Roger as he has to you," Julia giggled. "Now when it comes to Roger, there's much more involved than simply feeding him. You'll need to play with him and make sure he gets his exercise as well as clean up after him after he does his business."_

_"Heh, good thing I brought my pooper scooper again," Lana said as she and Lio lead Roger outside. "We can take it from here."_

_"I knew you'd say something like that," Julia said. "Best of luck!"_

_Lana picked a stick up off the ground and and tossed it a few meters. "Fetch boy!" She said and Roger immediately obliged, chasing after the stick and bringing it back to Lana. "Good boy!"_

_It was then that Lio noticed Roger's presence was frightening Walter, causing him to bring it up to Lana "I don't know if having Roger around Walter is such a good idea."_

_"What do you mean?" Lana asked._

_"It's just that, Walter seems kind of afraid to be around Roger," Lio said._

_"Walter's afraid to be around anyone," Lana pointed out. "Remember that he was scared of us when he first saw us."_

_"Yeah, but also remember that he bucked me like 10 feet into the air when he got spooked," Lio reminded her. "And with someone as bouncy and energetic as Roger, I don't think it would take much to startle Walter and accidentally hurt Roger."_

_"Yeah, I guess you're right in that regard," Lana said. "But still, what am I supposed to do to help Roger get his exercise?"_

_"You could always take him out for a walk," Lio suggest. "I'll stay here and make sure Walter is taken care of. I may even start looking after those adorable little stray cats!"_

_"Don't even think about it," Lana warned him as she put Roger on a leash. "Don't even think about taking a look at those kitties without me, got it?"_

_"Alright, alright, I won't," Lio laughed, throwing his hands up defensively._

_"You better not," Lana said as she and Roger head out for a walk._

_"Have fun!" Lio called after her. "We'll be waiting!"_

_Lana and Roger took a half hour walk around the block with Lana struggling at times to keep up with her new canine companion. Luckily, all it took was a gentle tug of the leash to get Roger to settle down whenever she needed him to slow down. Lana considered herself lucky that Roger wasn't the type of dog to get distracted and chase down every little thing he saw. He was still a little bit of a handful, but nothing that Lana couldn't handle. One thing Lana didn't consider to be so lucky was the fact that she had to pick up his poop. Once again, she was thankful for the fact she'd been insightful enough to bring her pooper scooper but was slightly reluctant that she had to use it. At the very least she could say that she didn't have to pick up mounds of dog poop like some dog owners had to do. When the time came for them to return to the shelter, Lana had a bit of a hard time corralling Roger to come back with her as the dog still had lots left in the tank._

_While Lana had been away, Lio took the time to tend to Walter a little bit more. The deer had become a lot more comfortable with Lio in the timespan Lana had been away, even allowing the young boy to feed him berries out of the palm of his hand. Lio had even tried his hand at helping Walter rehabilitate his injured leg, managing to get Walter to a point where he could stand up without collapsing in agonizing pain. With this progress, Lio taught Walter how to take a few baby steps without aggravating his wounds. Currently Lio was sitting down next to Walter, gently petting the deer behind his ears as the latter drank some water._

_Lio was so caught up in caring for Walter that he didn't notice Lana and Roger's return until it was too late. As he was walking to get more water for Walter to drink, Lio suddenly noticed a large shadow over him and barely had enough time to look up and ask "Huh" before being flattened yet again by Roger. The Great Dane panted happily and even let out what sounded like a laugh and he stood on top of Lio._

_"Looks like Roger missed you," Lana commented as Roger happily licked Lio's face while still "laughing"._

_"Alright dog… playtime is over," Lio said playfully as he slowly stood to his feet. "I WILL NOT LOSE THIS TIME!" He yelled. "I, LIO LOUD, WILL USE MY CONSIDERABLE POWERS TO VANQUISH YOU! YOU MANGY MUTT!" With that, Lio gave chase to Roger while the latter seemed to be taunting him._

_Lana had to laugh at Lio and his antics as she went to check on Walter. The deer let out a cheerful brag upon seeing Lana and allowed her to stroke him gently. There was still the matter of checking up on the kittens Julia had brought up, something she quickly reminded her brother._

_"Hey, Lio!" She called. "Have you forgotten about the kittens?"_

_That was all it took for Lio to forget all about Roger and return to her side, excitedly asking "How could I ever forget about such adorable little creatures? Where are they?"_

_"Calm down, boy" Lana said, petting Lio on his head to get him to calm down. It was ironic how someone who loved cats as much as he did behaved like a dog whenever he became excited. Although then again, she also had that habit so maybe it ran in the family. "I'll take you right to them."_

_"Hooray!" Lio cheered before calming down and saying. "I'm sorry you had to see that."_

_"Eh, nothing worse than how I act when I'm excited," Lana said before she made sure that Walter and Roger would be sufficiently separated._

_Lio and Lana walked into the room where the kittens were resting and found them to be just waking up from an apparent slumber. Lio's eyes immediately lit up yet again as he adopted another childlike expression and Lana could tell that he just wanted to let out a squeal of excitement. It was honestly adorable to see her big brother act like he had struck gold over the sight of a trio of kittens. Although to be fair to him, the felines were rather cute as they let out soft meows and walked over to the pair of siblings. One of the cats, a beige colored tabby ended up brushing against Lio's leg and purred, leaving him unable to contain his emotions._

_"Squeeeeeeeeeee!" Lio squealed, picking the cat up into his arms and gingerly stroking it as it smiled at him._

_"Come on, let's take this little fellas outside for some fresh air," Lana said, picking up the other two cats (an orange one and a white one) in her arms and carrying them outside while Lio carried the tabby atop his head, not caring at all as the little kitten scratched and played with his hair._

_Once they were outside, Lio immediately went about getting them some food and water to help replenish them after their nap. The three kittens were more than receptive to the food and water, letting out an affectionate series of meows as they ate and drank. Neither Lana or Lio made a single move as they did so, preferring to instead simply watch them in awe. That's when things devolved into chaos. Being the excitable little scamper that he was, upon seeing the three little cats, Roger assumes that they were new playmates and ran towards them. Seeing this, the three kittens immediately panicked and jumped atop Lio's head. That didn't stop Roger from happily pouncing at Lio._

_"Yare yare daze, not again," Lio muttered before being flattened for a third time by Roger. Much to his relief, the three cats abandoned ship before impact and avoided getting squished. "Ow."_

_"Roger, no, bad boy!" Lana scolded him as she chased after Roger while the latter chased after the kittens. "Heel, boy, heel! Calm down! Stop!"_

_Roger chasing after the kittens caused Walter to become frightened, resulting in him standing to his feet and slowly try to run away from the pandemonium, especially as the cats draw nearer, followed closely by the Great Dane. Unfortunately for Walter, his leg is still horribly injured and he can only manage the small baby steps that Lio taught him earlier. The scene was delving into absolute chaos as Lana desperately tried to get it under control. Upon getting back to his feet, Lio limped over to Walter to try and calm him down while Lana continued to chase after Roger and the kittens._

_"It'll be okay, Walter, no need to fear," Lio said, getting the deer to calm down enough to relax. "There, there, it'll be alright!"_

_Unfortunately, the calm wouldn't last long as the kittens ran between Walter's legs with Roger right behind them, causing Walter to panic and kick with his hind legs at the Great Dane. To spare the dog the punishment, Lio jumped in between them and took the kick himself, sending him sailing through the air and hitting his head hard against the wall, knocking him for a loop. That was what it took to finally get the animals to settle down as the kittens flocked to Lio and licked at his face trying to get him to stir. Roger stopped his pursuit and Walter stopped panicking long enough for all of them to check up on the kid._

_"Lio, bro, are you alright?" Lana asked, tending to Lio as the latter had a blank expression on his face and looked as if he didn't even know where he was._

_"No, I am not Betty White," Lio replied, clearly out of it._

_"Oh man, I think he might be concussed," Lana observed, taking a look into Lio's eyes._

_The cats meowed and tried to get Lio to stir while Walter looked remorseful for what he'd done and Roger seemed more subdued._

_"What on Earth happened here?" Julia asked as she arrived to see what had happened. "Is everyone alright?"_

_"It's my brother," Lana said, explaining. "We were trying to get treat all the animals simultaneously and things kind of got out of hand"_

_"You did what?" Julia asked as she tended to Lio, making sure he hadn't sustained any serious injury. "Why would you do something like that? These animals were kept in separate areas for a reason. So that something like this wouldn't happen."_

_"I know, but," Lana said, "I wanted to prove that I could handle being part of the club without being tired out so I tried caring for as many of these guys as I could at a time."_

_"I can understand that, but what you did was completely reck…" Julia started to say before noticing Walter, Roger, and the three kittens all gathered around quietly. "Did you… did you somehow manage to get these guys under control?"_

_"Yeah, I guess," Lana said, nervously rubbing her arm._

_"And from the looks of things, you got Walter to eat and even got him to up and walking again!" Julia said excitedly. "We've been struggling to get him to eat for days, let alone get him to walk! How did you manage that?"_

_"I…I," Lana tried to say, only to find that she couldn't find the words._

_"That's not even mentioning the fact that Roger has taken an extreme liking to you," Julia said before glancing at the three kittens still trying to help Lio and said "While these three little fluff balls have taken a liking to your brother."_

_"Yeah, but now it's all for nothing since you're probably going to kick me out of the club," Lana said sadly._

_"Kick you out of the club? When did I ever say that?" Julia replied._

_"What?" Lana asked. "You mean you're not going to kick me out?"_

_"Of course not!" Julia said. "Despite your young age, you've proven quite effective at caring for these guys. You're even better at it than some of our adult workers."_

_"Really?" Lana asked, eyes lighting up. "Well, I couldn't have done it without a little help from my brother."_

_"If that's the case, then I hope you'll be happy to hear that you and your brother are welcome back here anytime!"_

_"Did you hear that, Lio?" Lana asked, giving him a huge hug. "I get to stay in the club!"_

_"What's happening? Where am I?" Lio asked in a vaguely British accent, indicating that he was still somewhat out of it._

_"I might wanna get him home so he can rest," Lana said before bidding farewell to her newly made animal friends as she helped pick Lio up off the ground. "I'll be back again tomorrow, I promise!"_

_"Where are we going, little sister?" Lio asked, holding his head._

_"We're going home, Lio," Lana told him, helping him stay on his feet as his legs wobbled._

_"Thanks for coming!" Julia said as she waved goodbye to the two. "We look forward to seeing you tomorrow_!"

"Ever since that day, animal club has been a breeze," Lana told Lio as she concluded her tale. "And I have you to thank for that."

"I'm sorry, but I don't remember half of the stuff that happened that day," Lio said, trying to remember the events Lana described. "Come to think of it, I don't remember the day afterwards either."

"That's probably on account of you having a concussion," Lana said. "The point is that I'm still grateful for you helping me out back then and that I'll always be grateful for having your presence in my life."

"You know, that reminds me of one time you helped me out," Lola said. "Do you remember this one kid who had a "crush" on me named Jimmy? The one who I kinda liked back…"

"_He loves me, he loves me not," Lola said to herself as she plucked the petals from a flower. "He loves me, he loves me not, he loves me, he loves me not…" She said as she plucked the last petal from the flower. "Dang it! What does some stupid flower know anyway?"_

_"Hey Lola, whatcha doing?" Lio asked._

_"Nothing!" Lola said, tossing the flower away._

_"But I thought that I just saw and heard you…" Lio started to say._

_"Keyword being you thought," Lola replied. "I wasn't doing anything aside from sitting here."_

_"Uh huh," Lio replied. "Is that why there are a bunch of homemade Valentines' cards lying at your feet?"_

_Lola looked down and quickly tried picking up each and every card to hide them, remarking "Curse you and your keen observation skills."_

_"So what's going on?" Lio asked. "Has someone special caught your eye? Or is someone maybe fallen for you?"_

_"No!" Lola replied. "I mean yes! I mean butt out, it's none of your business!"_

_"Oh, come on, it's nothing to be ashamed of, you can tell your big brother," Lio said, half teasingly, earning him an angry scowl from Lola. "I mean uh…"_

_"If you must know, there's this one boy in my class who seems to really like me," Lola told him. "That's nothing really new honestly. I mean, who wouldn't fall for yours truly?"_

_"Then why were you sitting here doing the "he loves me/he loves me not" game?" Lio asked even though he had an inkling of an idea as to why._

_"Because…" Lola said, awkwardly rubbing the back of her neck. "Because…"_

_"Because what?" Lio said before figuring it out. "You have a crush on him too, don't you?"_

_"What!? No, I-," Lola replied. "How could I possibly have a crush on someone like him? With his gorgeous blonde hair… and his beautiful eyes… and his cute little babyface and…" Lio raised an eyebrow, causing Lola to admit "Okay, maybe I do like him back just a little but it's not like a big deal or anything. It's not like I wanna make him my boyfriend or anything!"_

_"Lola, relax," Lio calmed her down. "I'm not going to make fun of you, it's cool. There's nothing wrong with liking someone back or even having feelings for someone."_

_"That's not the point!" Lola replied. "It's not the fact that I like him back, it that I don't know how to approach him."_

_"What do you mean?" Lio asked._

_"It's like, I get intimidated every time I try to talk to him," Lola explained. "And every time he talks to me, I can't find the words to say so I just give him a piece of candy so that he doesn't think I hate him."_

_"Sounds like this guy's a real candy crush for you," Lio joked, letting out a laugh as Lola groaned and rolled her eyes._

_"If I wanted to hear bad puns, I'd go talk to Luan," Lola said._

_"Sorry, sorry," Lio apologized with a smile. "I just couldn't resist. So this kid really gives you butterflies, huh?"_

_"Yeah, I guess you could say that," Lola said, becoming a bit flustered. "If I try really hard, I can make small talk with him for a few minutes, but most of the time I just melt away and start speaking in gibberish"_

_"What's this kid's name by the way?" Lio asked._

_"Jimmy," Lola replied. "Jimmy Jameson."_

_"Maybe I can give you a few pointers on how you can talk to him," Lio said._

_"Yeah, the boy who can't even order a smoothie at the mall without running away when the cashier asks "May I take your order" is going to give me tips on how to talk to people," Lola quipped. "This should go real well"_

_"Hey, that incident was two years ago!" Lio pointed out. "I've gotten better since then." Lola shot Lio a look that just screamed "Really?", resulting in Lio adding "Slightly…"_

_"Okay, tell me exactly how you're going to help me learn how to talk to Jimmy without breaking down into random word nonsense," Lola said._

_"It's actually a really simple trick," Lio said. "Just try and zone out from the world."_

_"What?" Lola asked deadpanned._

_"Try to zone out," Lio repeated. "Look them directly in the eye and try to think of literally anything else. Think of card games or your favorite TV show or your favorite character(s) that has been killed off because the creator likes tugging at heartstrings! Jonathan deserved so much better!"_

_"Is there a point to all this?" Lola asked, hoping to get Lio to focus before he broke out into a rant._

_"Oops, sorry, guess I kinda got carried away for a second," Lio said. "The point I'm trying to make is try to distract yourself from the person. Listen to what they're saying, but tune out the world at large so that they appear invisible to you."_

_"I'm not sure if I can do something like that," Lola said._

_"Sure you can," Lio said. "You can try with me. Just look me in the eye and try to drown out my face as you talk to me."_

_"I still think your strategy is ridiculous but I guess it's worth a shot," Lola said before she attempted to follow Lio's advice. "Although then again, maybe talking to Jimmy isn't so much the problem as it is finding the right things to say. I only know a few things about him like how he likes action movies and collects Pokémon cards. I'm pretty sure he also mentioned playing all of the games too, but I couldn't tell you the first thing about Pokémon. I mean, I know pikachu is the most iconic, but other than that I can't tell you anything. Maybe I should go to Lincoln for help since he is a gamer. No offense, Lio, I know you like to play video games too, but you're not that good at them as Lincoln is. I could try and find out his other interests, but that also involves having to talk to him which wouldn't be so easy…"_

_"Lola," Lio said, trying to get her attention._

_"I wonder if he has any sisters that I could ask to find out more about him…" Lola continued on, with Lio being almost completely invisible to her._

_"Lola," Lio said a little bit louder._

_"Hopefully he isn't as gross as most other boys are," Lola kept talking._

_"Lola!" Lio yelled, finally getting her attention._

_"What? What is it?" Lola asked._

_"You did it," Lio pointed out. "It worked! You actually tuned out my face enough to actually talk without worry."_

_"Whoa, I guess I did, didn't I?" Lola said._

_"Just need to work on the whole still listening to them part and you'll be good to go," Lio said._

_"Yeah, but maybe it only worked because you're my brother," Lola said. "I mean, I don't have a crush on you so talking to you would be easy stuff,"_

_"Trust me, if you just practice a little, you'll be able to pull it off without a doubt," Lio encouraged her. "I use it all the time whenever I go to the bookstore to buy my manga and have to talk to the cashier, Ralph."_

_"Still though, what if I don't know what to say to Jimmy once we start talking?" Lola asked._

_"Have you ever thought of maybe just coming out and admitting how you feel about him?" Lio suggested. "I mean, it's clear that he has feelings for you too, so there's probably no harm in coming clean"_

_"This coming from the guy who still can't admit his feelings for his best friend," Lola retorted._

_"I keep telling you guys: Kat and I are just friends!" Lio insisted, despite the fact that he was blushing bright red. "We're not lovebirds!"_

_"Hey, it's like you said, Lio, there's nothing wrong with liking someone or having feelings for them," Lola teased._

_Lio didn't even have a rebuttal and just blushed even more, awkwardly coughing in an attempt to try changing the subject._

_"Anyway…" he said after a long pause._

_"Do you really think that I should try telling Jimmy that I like him back?" Lola asked._

_"Yeah, I say go for it," Lio encouraged her._

_"Alright, I guess I'll give it a shot," Lola said. "But if this goes wrong, I'm blaming you for it!"_

_"Fair enough," Lio said with a shrug._

_The following day at school, Lola was about to go out onto the playground for recess when she was approached by the object of her affections._

_"Hi Lola!" Jimmy greeted her._

_"H-H-Hey Jimmy," Lola said nervously as he returned his smile._

_"Whoa, you seem really happy today," Jimmy said. "Normally, when I talk to you, you just giggle and punch me in the shoulder before giving me some candy."_

_"Well, you know, I'm just really enjoying this beautiful day," Lola said. "You don't have days like this everyday."_

_"True!" Jimmy said. "So, you got any sugary sweets for me today?"_

_"You bet I do," Lola said, pulling out two Hershey kisses and handing them to Jimmy._

_"Thanks!" Jimmy said, quickly snatching the candies out of Lola's hand. "Hey, so you know about that Valentine's Day Dance coming up this weekend?"_

_"Yeah, I was going to just stay at home and prepare for a pageant I have coming up," Lola said._

_"Oh, you're a pageant queen?" Jimmy asked._

_"Multiple time pageant winning queen, I'll have you know," Lola replied._

_"Oh, that's neat!" Jimmy said. "Well, I guess that means my plan is a bust."_

_"What plan?" Lola asked._

_"I was going to ask you out to the dance, but since you have other plans in mind, I guess I'll just…" Jimmy said, starting to walk away before Lola grabbed him by his arm._

_"No, wait!" Lola said. "You know what they say: plans can always change! I'd love to go to the dance with you!"_

_"Really?" Jimmy asked. "You would?"_

_"Totally," Lola replied before deciding to follow Lio's advice and tell Jimmy how she felt. "Truth is, I know I don't talk to you much, but I actually really like you."_

_"You do?" Jimmy asked._

_"Yeah, I do," Lola said. "If I had to go to the dance with anyone else, I'd love for it to be you."_

_For a split second, Lola thought she saw Jimmy's lips curl into a smirk before melting away into a warmer and more friendly smile._

_"That's great!" Jimmy said. "I can't wait to see you this Saturday."_

_"Same here!" Lola said. "I'm sure we'll have ourselves a ball."_

_"See ya later, Lola!" Jimmy said as he ran into the playground, leaving Lola to blush as she looked forward to the weekend._

_Needless to say, Lola came home in an extremely good mood that afternoon. She wore a huge smile on her face and even had an almost lovestruck look in her eyes. The first thing she did upon opening the door was run up to Lio and grabbed him in a tight embrace._

_"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!" Lola said, almost crushing him with how tight she was hugging him._

_"You're welcome?" Lio squeaked, gasping for breath. "What exactly are you thanking me for?"_

_"Your advice!" Lola said happily. "I followed your advice and it worked! Jimmy and I are going to the dance together this Saturday!"_

_"That's awesome, Lola!" Lynn congratulated her as the other sisters gathered round to congratulate Lola._

_"I knew that there had to be a reason for your chipper mood," Lisa observed. "Normally you come home and just start watching TV."_

_"Do you need our help getting ready?" Leni asked. "Because we can like, totally help you look even prettier for the special day!"_

_"Thanks but no thanks," Lola politely declined. "I can do my own makeup and pick my own dress. I'll make sure I look perfect when the day arrives."_

_"Glad that you were able to find a date," Lincoln said before smirking at Lio and teasing him by saying "Now if only a certain someone we know could work up the strength to ask someone he knows out to the dance."_

_"Lincoln, please, this isn't about me, this is about our little sister" Lio responded. "Besides, Kat and I aren't really a fan of these huge dance events, they're too flashy for our liking." He then teased Lincoln back by saying "If you're so eager about the dance, why don't you ask Ronnie Anne if she can visit and go to the dance with you?"_

_"At least I have the excuse that she lives miles away!" Lincoln retorted._

_"So you admit that you have feelings for her?" Lio replied._

_"No, I-," Lincoln said. "I mean, at least I'm not in denial!"_

_"What do you mean in denial?" Lio asked. "There is nothing going on between me and Kat!"_

_While the brothers argued, Lori told Lola "It's great that you found someone to go out with. If you need any advice, you know we're here for you."_

_"Thanks Lori!" Lola said before going upstairs to do her hair._

_Saturday rolled around and Lola was eager for her "date" with Jimmy. Rita dropped her off at the school a few minutes after the dance had started._

_"Alright sweetie, you have fun!" Rita told her. "I'll be back to pick you up in 2 hours!"_

_"Thanks mom!" Lola said before Rita drove off._

_Lola head inside to look for Jimmy and found him sitting quietly off to the side._

_"What are you doing all here by yourself?" Lola asked as she walked up to him. "You should be on the dance floor having a good time."_

_"I was waiting for you to show up," Jimmy said, smiling at her. "I can't have a good time until you show up."_

_"You didn't think that I was going to stand you up, did you?" Lola asked._

_"I dunno, maybe," Jimmy said with a laugh before grabbing Lola by her hand and leading her into the dance floor. "Come on, let's go show these losers how to really dance."_

_"I'm right behind you," Lola said, following right behind Jimmy._

_The two had a wonderful time, dancing and partying until they were exhausted. The two certainly stole the show with their dancing, not even caring who saw them. The two danced until they could dance no more and needed a break._

_"I'll be right back," Lola said. "I'm going to go get some punch. Do you want me to get you some?"_

_"That would be nice, yes" Jimmy said._

_The line for punch was a little long, but Lola didn't mind waiting. She was having the time of her life at the dance. As she finally made it to the punch bowl and fixed her and Jimmy's drinks, she thought that this evening couldn't possibly go wrong. Sadly, she'd soon be proven wrong. As she walked back over to Jimmy, she overheard him talking to one of his friends._

_"Man, I can't believe you actually pulled it off," his friend said. "You actually got Lola Loud to go out with you?"_

_"I told you I would," Jimmy replied arrogantly. "The most gorgeous girl in class and I got her to agree to go out with me. I tell you, it was all too easy for me!"_

_While Lola was flattered at being called the most gorgeous girl, she had a feeling that the compliment wasn't as wholesome as it sounded._

_"Oh, please do tell," Jimmy's friend said._

_"All I had to do was show the dumb blonde some attention and she was all over me," Jimmy bragged. "Girl even told me that she liked me! Not to mention the added benefit of her giving me candy every day!"_

_"Well, a bet is a bet," Jimmy's friend said, handing Jimmy a 5 bill. "But don't you at least feel bad about stringing Lola along like that?"_

_"Nope, it was all too easy," Jimmy laughed._

_As anyone would react to hearing that they'd been used, Lola dropped her drink and ran out of the dance fighting back tears. She quickly called Rita to come pick her up and waited patiently for her mother to come pick her up. When Rita asked what was wrong, Lola was reluctant to tell her, not wanting to admit to being used._

_"Oh, sure thing sweetie, I'll be right over to pick you up," Rita said. "I'm sorry to hear that things didn't work out. Just sit tight and I'll be right there."_

_"Thanks mom," Lola sniffled, unable today hold back the tears._

_When Lola returned home early, all of her siblings were confused as to why. They were also confused as to why Lola was crying, wondering what had happened. Lio was especially concerned._

_"What's wrong, Lola?" Lana asked. "Is everything alright?"_

_"No," Lola stated, wiping tears from her eyes. "Things didn't go so smooth."_

_"What happened?" Lincoln asked. "Did Jimmy stand you up?"_

_"No!" Lola said, crying harder at the mention of Jimmy._

_"What's wrong?" Luna asked._

_"I… I found out that Jimmy wasn't who I thought he was," Lola told them._

_"Hmm?" Lincoln asked, raising an eyebrow._

_"I found out that Jimmy was just using me the whole time," Lola said, her crying becoming a mix of sadness and anger. "All because of some stupid bet to see if he could bag the hottest girl in class."_

_"Oh my gosh, that's terrible," Leni said, hoping to comfort Lola._

_"I'm sorry, he did what?" Lio asked._

_"Yeah, he didn't really like me," Lola said. "He was only interested in me for some bet and for the free candy he could get from me."_

_"Lynn, could I borrow your baseball bat?" Lio asked in an eerily calm voice that sent chills down everyone's spine. The siblings knew that it was Lio's protective side getting the best of him._

_"Lio, what are you going to do?" Lynn asked._

_"I'm just going to talk to him," Lio said calmly. The tone in his voice prompted Lynn not to give him the bat as she didn't want him to get into serious trouble._

_"Lio, no!" Lola said, trying to calm Lio down before he did something he'd regret._

_"I just wanna talk to him," Lio said, marching out the door._

_"Lio, no, don't do it," Lola pleaded with him. "I'll be fine."_

_"I just wanna talk to him," Lio repeated._

_"Lio!" Lola called his name as she followed after him._

_"I just wanna talk to him," Lio said, almost as if repeating a madness mantra._

_"Lio, please don't do something you're going to regret," Lola desperately pleaded with him._

_"I just wanna talk to him," Lio said once again._

_"It's no big deal, really," Lola insisted. "You don't have to do this,"_

_"I just wanna talk to him,"_

_"Lio, seriously!"_

_"I just wanna talk to him,"_

_"Lio!"_

_"I just wanna punch him," Lio said, slipping up._

_"Lio, no!" Lola said, tugging at Lio's sleeve, trying to stop him._

_"He made you cry," Lio pointed out. "Nobody and I mean nobody makes my little sister cry and gets away with it!"_

_"Please, just promise that you won't do anything you'll regret," Lola pleaded with him yet again._

_Lio took a deep breath and said, "Alright, I promise I won't hurt him. But I will make him apologize to you."_

_By now, the two were just outside Jimmy's house. Lola was quite nervous as Lio rang the doorbell. It didn't take long before Jimmy answered the door._

_"Lola?" Jimmy questioned before saying "You have a lot of nerve showing up here!"_

_"And you have a lot of nerve stringing along my sister for the sake of your little bet," Lio told him. "You should be ashamed of yourself and apologize to Lola for manipulating her the way you did."_

_"Apologize!?" Jimmy scoffed. "If anything, she should be apologizing to me!" Jimmy turned to Lola and said "Do you know how humiliated I was after you just up and left? Do you know how embarrassing it is being stood up by the most beautiful girl in class?"_

_"Flattery will get you nowhere," Lola remarked. "There's no way I'm apologizing to you after you used me so that you can win some stupid bet."_

_"Excuse me," said a gruff voice as a large boy who appeared to be 13 or 14 years old as was a near spitting image of Jimmy came to the door. "You wouldn't happen to be bothering my little brother, would you?"_

_"Why of course not," Lio said. "We are here to get an apology from your brother after he manipulated my sister here and left her heartbroken."_

_"I don't see how that's his problem," Jimmy's brother said. "If your sister was dumb enough to fall for his tricks, that's on her. Now make like a tree and get outta here before I make you regret coming here."_

_"I don't care who you are, I will not allow your brother to get away with deceiving my younger sister and playing with her emotions," Lio said, not intimidated by the brother's size, even looking him in the eye and saying "Furthermore, I won't tolerate anyone who insults her so you…"_

_That was as far as Lio got before Jimmy's brother grabbed him by his neck and slammed him onto the ground. Jimmy's brother then pounced on Lio and began beating the tar out of him while the latter weakly tried to defend himself. It was to no avail as he was incapable of fending off the much larger and aggressive boy._

_"Looks like your brother should've heeded my brother's warning," Jimmy said in a smug voice._

_"Lio!" Lola cried out before pleading with Jimmy. "Call off your brother! Call him off!"_

_"Hmm, I might tell him to stop…" Jimmy said. "If you give me a kiss and agree to bring me 10 pieces of candy everyday for the rest of the year."_

_"Ew, gross," Lola refused. "No way!"_

_"Are you sure about that?" Jimmy asked as his brother continued viciously beating the crap out of Lio, showing the younger boy absolutely no mercy. "Your brother doesn't seem to be doing so well."_

_In the background, Lio could be heard yelling "My arm doesn't bend that way. My arm doesn't bend that way!" Before there was a sickening snap and Lio cried out "AHHH! Now it does!"_

_"So what's it going to be, Lola?" Jimmy asked. "Are you going to give your prince some sugar, both figuratively and literally or are you just going to let your brother get beaten to a pulp until Terry fires out or gets bored, whichever comes first."_

_"So you're not going to call off your Neanderthal brother peacefully, huh?" Lola asked._

_"Not unless you give into my requests," Jimmy said._

_"And that's your final answer?" Lola asked in that eerily calm voice that Lio had earlier._

_"What are you, deaf?" Jimmy replied. "Either give me a kiss or your brother gets put in a coma"_

_"I thought that you might say that," Lola said before pulling out Lynn's baseball bat and clocking Jimmy in the face with it._

_"What the?" Jimmy asked as he looked up at the sky dazed and confused._

_"Hey, what are you doing to my brother!?" Terry yelled, finally leaving Lio alone and running over to confront Lola._

_Unfortunately for him, Lola was having none of his crap and hit him hard in the gut with the bat, causing him to double over in pain. Lola smashed the bat into Terry's knee, sending him crumpling to the ground, screaming in pain. Lola considered the kneecapping to be payback for Terry possibly breaking Lio's arm._

_"Ahh, shut up!" Lola yelled before hitting Terry in the back with the bat, knocking him out._

_"Big bro!" Jimmy cried as Lola walked over to him. He immediately lost his smug arrogant bravado and began pleading with her for mercy. "Please, no! I'm sorry about using you for a cheap bet! Don't hurt me!"_

_"I don't know if I'm in a forgiving mood right now," Lola said._

_"Please, I'll do anything you want," Jimmy pleaded. "Just don't hurt me."_

_"First, I want you to apologize," Lola told him._

_"I'm sorry," Jimmy quickly apologized. "I'm really really really really really sorry!"_

_"Now, that 5 you won from your little "bet", hand it over," Lola demanded._

_"Here, here, take it!" Jimmy said, tossing Lola the money. "Now will you leave me alone?"_

_"Maybe I would have if you hadn't sicced your brother on mine," Lola said before getting the ultimate payback by kneecapping Jimmy as well, causing him to scream in pain. "Nobody messes with my family"_

_With that, Lola left Jimmy writhing in agony as she helped a dazed and bloodied Lio up to his feet. The two began the walk home (or in Lio's case, limp) with Lio apologizing to Lola._

_"I'm sorry," He said, looking away in shame._

_"For what?" Lola asked._

_"For giving you advice on how to talk to that scumbag," Lio said. "I should've told you to stay away from that brat."_

_"Don't beat yourself up about it, you had no way of knowing," Lola told him. "I'm sorry you got beat up by his barbarian brother."_

_"Eh, it was worth it," Lio said, offering a smile. "I'd take 1000 beatings if it meant standing up for you."_

_"Thanks," Lola said. "But I'd prefer if you didn't get the crap beaten out of you for my sake. I'd like you to be around for a long time."_

_"I'll do my best to oblige you," Lio told her._

_Lola have Lio a hug, causing him to wince in pain and even tear up a little bit._

_"Sorry," Lola apologized._

_"Eh, I'll be fine," Lio said. "I'm just glad you made that jerk pay,"_

_"Did you hear how he started begging as soon as he was cornered?" Lola asked._

_"That was kinda funny," Lio said. "Where did you get Lynn's bat from though?"_

_"Eh, I snuck it out of the house with me in case something went down," Lola said._

_"And boy am I thankful you did," Lio said._

_"What are you saying?" Lola replied, pretending to sound offended. "I could've easily taken both him and his brother on with my bare hands."_

_"You're right," Lio said. "How silly of me to forget."_

_The two of them shared a laugh as they continued home._

"You may think of yourself as useless," Lola said to Lio. "But I don't think I can think of anyone useless who would stand up for their sister like that. Especially to a behemoth like that kid's brother."

"I still needed you to bail me out though," Lio said sadly. "I'm a failure of a brother."

"No you're not," Lola said. "I don't wanna hear you say something like that again, got it?"

"Sorry," Lio sheepishly apologized.

"Allow me to jog your memory of an event where you proved rather helpful," Lisa said, ready to tell her own story. "You may recall a certain eccentric experiment of mine…"


	5. I Was A Preteen Catboy

_It was safe to say that Lisa had performed many strange experiments in her day. Despite her young age, the prodigy had pushed the boundaries of science several times with each experiment. For more than a few of them, she'd involved her siblings (oftentimes involuntarily) with her endeavors in her attempt to find the answers she sought. And while her parents had forbidden her from using her siblings as guinea pigs, Lisa persisted in her studies, simply learning to be more discreet when it came to using her siblings as test subjects. This upcoming experiment that she had in mind however, required a willing participant. Someone who would be aware of the risks it presented and still consent anyway. That seemed like a rather tall task, but Lisa was sure she could find someone willing to step up. Perhaps she could convince Leni to be her test subject. Then again, following the other times Lisa's experiments involving her had gone awry, Lisa wouldn't hold her breath waiting for that to come to fruition. Then again, she could always try turning to Lincoln. She found him to always be reliable. Luckily for her, Lincoln was rather easy to find, being currently relaxed on the couch in the living room live-streaming as he played through a first person shooter while Lio provided the occasional commentary._

_"Ah, Lincoln, just the person I wanted to see," Lisa said._

_"Hey Lisa!" The brothers both greeted her with Lincoln asking her "What can I help you with?"_

_"Well, I'm glad you asked," Lisa said. "There's an upcoming project I wish to work on that I could use a volunteer for. Since we've worked together so well in the past, I was hoping that I could ask you to lend a hand."_

_"So you want me to act as your test subject, right?" Lincoln asked._

_"Test subject sounds so harsh," Lisa said. "Perhaps the term "research partner" would be a more appropriate way to refer to our tandem partnership."_

_"You can call it whatever you want," Lincoln said, focusing on the TV as he eliminated another player from the game. "I'm basically just going to be acting as a lab rat for you."_

_"Must you be so insistent in degrading our partnership by referring to it with such ugly terminology?" Lisa persisted. "Regardless, I was hoping that I could rely on you for this project seeing as it's rather important to me and could be beneficial to the human species as a whole…"_

_"I'm sorry, but I'm gonna have to say no to that," Lincoln said, not taking his eyes off the screen._

_"Come again?" Lisa asked._

_"No offense, but your experiments can be kinda dangerous," Lincoln said. "Last time I volunteered to act as a test subject for one of your experiments, I ended up growing a horn out of my head."_

_"Why must you dwell on past events and continue to live in the past?" Lisa asked. "I can assure you that this experiment is almost completely safe with only a 6% chance of things going awry."_

_"I'm gonna have to politely decline," Lincoln said before his character was killed by an airstrike. "Dang it! So close to being the sole survivor!"_

_"If you need someone to help you out, I can maybe be of assistance," Lio offered, prompting a stereo response of "What?" from both Lincoln and Lisa._

_"After what happened last time with my gravity gun accidentally turning your hand inside out and everything, I would've thought that you'd be the most reluctant to assist me in my experiment," Lisa said._

_"You've gotta **hand** it to me, I handled that situation like a champ," Lio joked. "No, but seriously, if I can handle having my gravity inverted, I'm sure I can handle whatever you have in mind this time around."_

_"Lio, are you sure you want to do this?" Lincoln asked, trying to warn his twin brothers of the danger. "You know that Lisa's experiments have a certain risk factor, right?"_

_"Yep!" Lio said cheerfully. "I'm well aware of the risks and I don't care."_

_"Could I get you to sign this waiver and contract verifying your expressed written consent?" Lisa asked, presenting Lio with two documents for him to sign._

_"Um… sure," Lio said, going against his better judgment and signing the forms._

_"Well bro, it was nice knowing you," Lincoln quipped, turning his focus back to the TV as the second round of his game began._

_"Ignore Lincoln's exaggerated quips, this experiment is in no way life threatening," Lisa said. "The waiver and contract were merely precautionary measures."_

_"That's comforting," Lio said sarcastically as he followed Lisa to her room. Once they were there, Lisa wasted no time strapping him to an examination table. "Uh, Lisa? What's going on?"_

_"Do not fear, elder brother," Lisa said. "Despite appearances, I assure you that this is for your own safety."_

_"Alright, but why have I been tied to a table?" Lio asked._

_"I suppose that it's only fair that I fill you in," Lisa said before explaining. "You see, while studying the biological makeup of different animals as well as the traits they've evolved to have in order to protect themselves, I wondered if I could perhaps gift some of these traits to a human."_

_"I'm still lost," Lio admitted._

_"In order to reach a conclusive result, I am going to splice your DNA with that of a certain animal's in order to study the results," Lisa explained. "Seeing as how you have an affinity for cats, I figure that it'll be fitting if I splice your DNA with that of Cliff's so as to study whether you take on the traits I want to assign you or not."_

_"This seems very unethical," Lio said._

_"And it most likely is to some degree," Lisa admitted as she pulled out a syringe containing a glowing green liquid. "But you have my assurance that you are not in any sort of grave risk." She then pulled out a vial of purple chemical and said "In the event that something goes horribly awry or causes you to undergo unexpected mutations, I've developed a formula that will completely undo the effects of said cat DNA and return you to your normal state"_

_"Before we go any further, are you 100% certain that that formula will work as intended?" Lio asked, squirming a bit on the table._

_"Affirmative," Lisa answered. "You have nothing to worry about." With that, Lisa injected Lio with the glowing green chemical, with Lio cracking a joke, saying "Wow, are you sure you didn't mix this up with Herbert West's reanimator?"_

_"Glad to see you're in a good mood," Lisa said as she finished injecting the chemical into Lio and unstrapped him from the table. "So, how do you feel?"_

_"I don't know," Lio said as he sat up. "A little tingly honestly, but other than that I feel fine." Lio then sniffed at the air._

_"What is it?" Lisa asked._

_"Dad's back home," He said. "In fact he's just outside in the driveway."_

_"How can you tell?" Lisa asked._

_"Easy," Lio replied. "Judging from the aroma given off by his cologne combined with the scent of caramel, coriander, and a slight tinge of ginger, I can conclude that he's wrapped up another day at the restaurant." Lio took another sniff and added "On top of that, he's picked up roses presumably for Mom, allowing me to conclude that he and Mom are going out for a date tonight, leaving Lori in charge for the evening."_

_"You determined all of that from a simple smell?" Lisa questioned. "A smell that you could detect while standing a considerable distance away from father?" Lisa pulled out a notepad and scribbled down some notes. "Interesting, it would appear that Cliff's DNA is already working as intended."_

_"How so?" Lio asked._

_"Similar to many animals, cats have a keen sense of smell," Lisa said. "For you to be able to pick up scents from so far away is a sign that you've taken on attributes from Cliff that could prove useful."_

_"Oh, neat!" Lio said._

_"Please come with me," Lisa said, grabbing Lio by his hand and guiding him to follow her. "There's still much testing to be done."_

_As Lisa and Lio marched downstairs, they walked past Lynn Sr. in the kitchen. True to Lio's description, he held a bouquet of roses in his hand and was wearing a noticeable cologne._

_"Hey kids, how was your day today?" He asked the two of them._

_"Fine," Lio said. "I see you and Mom are going out on a date tonight."_

_"You have as keen an eye as ever," Lynn Sr said. "Yep, it's been a while since your Mom and I had time to ourselves so we're getting out of the house tonight. Of course, that means that Lori…"_

_"That Lori's in charge, we understand," Lisa said._

_"So where are you two headed?" Lynn Sr asked._

_"To the basement," Lisa said. "I need Lio's help in finding a vital tool of mine that I seemed to have misplaced."_

_"Oh, alright," Lynn Sr said. "You two just be sure to be safe down there and don't hurt yourself."_

_"Will do," Lio promised him as their dad head upstairs to get ready for his date. As they reached the basement door, Lio turned to Lisa and asked "So what tool are we looking for?"_

_"Lio, I'm going to be honest, I haven't been exactly truthful with you," Lisa said. "The true reason we came to the basement is so that I could test your righting reflex as well as reflexes overall."_

_"Wait, what?" Lio asked before Lisa unexpectedly pushed him down the stairs._

_As he fell, Lio was surprised to find that he was able to correct himself in midair before he hit the ground. With the athleticism and agility of a gymnast combined with the quickness of a cat, Lio landed perfectly on his feet without any difficulty. That didn't stop him from being a little miffed at being so haphazardly shoved down the stairs._

_"Lisa, what the heck!?" Lio shouted as he dusted himself off. Strangely, he felt a strong urge to lick himself clean, which he did._

_"I apologize elder brother, but as I said, I needed to text your reflexes," Lisa said._

_"You couldn't have just threw a ball at me to see if I could catch it?" Lio replied._

_"I could have, but it wouldn't have been nearly as effective," Lisa said, writing things in her notepad. "Now for the second part of this test…"_

_"Which is…?" Lio asked before Lisa turned off the lights to the basement and shut the door on him, leaving him in complete darkness. "Of course."_

_"Now, I need you to relay to me what you can see!" Lisa shouted. "Can you make out your surroundings at all?"_

_Taking a look around, Lio found that he actually could, another fact that took him by surprise. Despite being in near absolute darkness, Lio could see the washer and dryer, one of Charles' chew toys, a small mouse hole in the wall, an old black and white TV and a pile of Lynn's sports' socks that needed washing. Thanks to Lio's newly enhanced sense of smell, the socks' had an even more pungent odor to him, causing him to gag. Making sure not to accidentally trip and fall face first into them, Lio continued to look around before answering Lisa._

_"This might sound strange, but yeah, I can actually see," Lio told her. "I can see everything down here in stunning detail!"_

_"There's nothing strange about that," Lisa replied. "That's a sign my experiment was a resounding success! In addition to enhanced smell compared to humans, cats also have enhanced eyesight that allow them to see in low light environments!"_

_"So you're saying I have all the superpowers of a cat?" Lio asked before cheering as he walked up the stairs and exited the basement. "Awesome! I bet Lincoln regret passing up this opportunity now!"_

_"And why is that?" Lincoln asked as he walked into the kitchen._

_"Because thanks to Lisa, I've got some of the abilities of a cat," Lio said happily. "It's almost like a superhero origin story!"_

_"No offense, but what would I want with the abilities of a cat?" Lincoln asked. "It seems like it'd be more of a hindrance/burden than a benefit in the long run"_

_There was a loud crash and Lio suddenly jumped in fright, leaping so high into the air that he ended up clinging to the ceiling._

_"What's with him?" Lincoln asked Lisa._

_"It would appear that it's time for Luna's drum practice," Lisa said, hearing the faint sound of Luna playing her drums from out in the garage. "Due to his enhanced hearing, Luna's loud playing must've startled him."_

_"See what I mean?" Lincoln replied, looking up at Lio as the latter cling to the ceiling for dear life, trembling while his teeth chattered. "By the way Lio, how are you doing that?"_

_"Doing what?" Lio asked before realizing that he was defying gravity, causing him to lose his grip and fall back towards earth. Fortunately, thanks to his newly acquired abilities, he was able to correct himself and land on his own two feet, even striking a pose and proclaiming "Ta-da!"_

_"So, what do you say, elder brother?" Lisa asked Lincoln. "I could always use a second study partner to help me verify the results of this experiment."_

_"What you've accomplished is indeed impressive," Lincoln admitted. "But I still don't wanna take my chances."_

_"Suit yourself," both Lisa and Lio said with a shrug with Lio saying "Guess I'll get to enjoy my new animal powers all by myself."_

_"How long are these effects going to last?" Lincoln asked Lisa._

_"I'm not sure," Lisa said. "For all I know, the effects could be permanent."_

_"Lisa…" Lincoln said in a scolding tone._

_"Relax," Lisa said. "I always have an antidote of sorts that should return Lio to normal if something goes wrong."_

_"I honestly don't know where you get these ideas," Lincoln said, grabbing a soda before returning to his video game session._

_Lio returned to watch and co-commentate as well, but as he was streaming, Lincoln noticed a few strange oddities about his twin. More than a few times, he'd stop commentating in order to lick himself. He'd also crawl around in circles on the couch before curling up and laying down for a few seconds. Eventually, he'd realize what he was doing and return to sitting in an upright position as per normal. A few times, there were loud explosions from the game that caused Lio to instinctively jump behind the couch for safety before getting a hold of himself. Lincoln chalked this up to his heightened hearing, but this didn't make it any less strange. Deep in his heart, something told Lincoln that Lisa's experiment has done more than just give him certain catlike traits._

_With Lori taking over for babysitting duties however, he couldn't dwell on it for too long. Needless to say, his streaming session came to an abrupt end as Lori put her foot down. The strangeness didn't end even when the boys turned in for bed, with Lio pacing around on his bed like a cat before curling up just like he'd done on the couch. Lio stayed in that position all throughout the night as he slept. If Lincoln thought things were strange now, he'd have to wait until morning rolled around. In the early hours of the day at the usual time of 4 AM, Lio's alarm went off._

_"Mori-Mori-Mori-Morioh Cho Radio!"_

_Lincoln groaned as Lio got out of bed, prompting Lio to apologize "Sorry Linc, I thought I set it on low volume,"_

_"It's okay- AHH," Lincoln said, turning to face Lio and being surprised by what he saw._

_"What?" Lio asked. "Is there something in my teeth?"_

_"You might wanna take a look at yourself," Lincoln said, holding up a mirror so that Lio could see himself._

_"Oh my DIO…" Lio said upon seeing himself. The young otaku now had a pair of cat ears atop his head alongside a cat's tail from his backside and some whiskers on his face. "I look so kawaii!"_

_"What's going on?" Lori asked as she and the other sisters barged into the brothers' room. "We heard Lincoln screaming and-," She stopped mid sentence when she got a good look at Lio. "Oh my gosh…"_

_"Um… Lio, why are you dressed as an anime catboy?" Leni asked. "Is this part of one of your cosplays?"_

_"Would you care to explain what's going on here?" Lincoln asked Lisa while Lio had the goofiest, yet happiest grin on his face._

_"Oh dear, it would appear that the DNA I injected Lio with has resulted in some slight mutations," Lisa said, taking a closer look at Lio._

_"Lisa, what have mom and dad said about experimenting on us?" Luna reminded her. "How are we going to explain this to them?"_

_"Relax," Lisa said. "I developed a counter active formula just in case an event like this arose. All I have to do is give him a simple injection and he should return to normal."_

_"Um… that wouldn't happen to have been that purple stuff, would it?" Lana asked._

_"Yes, why?" Lisa asked._

_"Because Charles kinda into it and drank it," Lana explained._

_"You've got to be kidding me," Lori said._

_"I wish I was, but it's the truth," Lana said._

_"So what're we going to do about cat boy here now?" Lynn asked._

_"Maybe we shouldn't do anything," Lola said. "I'm not going to lie, Lio looks kinda cute like this."_

_"If we keep him like this, how are we going to explain it to mom and dad?" Lucy pointed out._

_"Technically, that's all Lisa's problem," Lynn pointed out._

_"Everyone calm down," Lisa said. "Creating an antidote isn't a difficult task. I can create another one rather easily. In the meantime, I just need you to keep Mom and Dad from seeing Lio."_

_"How long will this antidote take?" Lincoln asked._

_"A couple of hours at most," Lisa said. "Until then, do your best to keep Lio under wraps."_

_"I take it that means I won't be leaving the house today," Lio said._

_"I don't know if you'll even be allowed to leave this room," Lincoln told him._

_"But a new episode of Celeste comes out today!" Lio protested. "I can't afford to miss this episode."_

_"Sorry, Lio, but we can't let Mom and Dad see you like this," Lori said._

_"Awww man, this sucks," Lio said with a huff._

_"Come on Lio, try to be a little more **paws**-itive," Luan joked. "I know it's un-**fur**-tunate, but there's no reason to be **cat**-atonic."_

_"You know, I was **feline** down, but your jokes are going to have me **hiss**-terical," Lio played along, sharing a laugh with Luan. "I've almost **fur**-gotten what I was so upset about"_

_"That's the right **cat**-titude to have," Luan said, scratching Lio behind his cat ears as the siblings groaned at the pair's pun game. "And if that's not enough to lift your spirits, let me tail you that you look **purr**-ty adorable and you better believe that I'm not **kitten** around."_

_"**Fur** real?" Lio replied with a laugh._

_"Hurry up with that antidote, Lisa!" Lincoln said. "Hurry up before Lio and Luan kill us with cat puns!"_

_"I'm on it!" Lisa said, rushing to her room to begin work on the formula. Meanwhile the sisters groaned at Luan and Lio's puns and returned to their room to get some more sleep._

_"You know, **purr**-sonally I don't see what their problem is," Luan joked._

_"They really should learn how to lighten up and not be such a **sourpuss**," Lio said._

_"Guys, could you not?" Lincoln said as he crawled back into bed. "I'm trying to sleep."_

_"Oh, sorry Linc," Lio apologized._

_"I was reaching the tail end of my jokes anyway," Luan giggled before leaving._

_"Since I still have time before either mom or dad get up, I should go ahead and get ready now," Lio said, leaving and heading to the bathroom to shower and get dressed._

_"I'm really hoping that this is all just a dream," Lincoln said as he turned out the lights, rolled over and went back to bed._

_After emerging from the shower, Lio sneaked downstairs to grab himself an apple to eat before returning to his room, where he would remain for the next couple of hours. Fortunately for both Lio and Lisa, both Lynn Sr and Rita had to leave the house for the day in order to go to work, meaning he'd be free to venture from his room until they came home. As the others would soon learn however, Lio's catlike tendencies extended far beyond a few enhanced senses and a new appearance._

_"Hey Lio, wanna help me and Chris practice for my baseball game?" Lynn asked._

_"Sure thing!" Lio said, giving a thumbs up as he joined the two outside._

_"So, what's with the cat ears and tail?" Chris asked._

_"One of Lisa's experiments," Lynn filled him in._

_"Ahhh," Chris said, nodding his head._

_"I need to practice my batting," Lynn said. "So Chris is going to be pitching and Lio, you're going to be catching."_

_"Got it," Lio said before getting into position._

_Chris threw the ball and as expected, Lynn smacked it almost out of the park. It would've gone over the fence into Mr. Grouse's yard had Lio not unexpectedly leapt into the air and caught it just in time… with his teeth._

_"Nice… catch?" Chris congratulated him, unsure as to why Lio caught the ball in such a manner._

_The weirdness didn't end there with Lio now playing with the ball on the ground, rolling it back and forth between his hands. He didn't even seem to acknowledge Chris and Lynn's presence, being off in his own little world._

_"Lio!" Lynn shouted, snapping Lio out of his trance._

_"Oh right, sorry, sorry!" Lio apologized, jumping in fright from Lynn's shouting. "Heads up!" He said, tossing the ball at Chris, who in turn tossed it to Lynn._

_Once again, Lynn sent the ball sailing through the air, forcing Lio to take a diving leap to try and catch it. While he failed to catch the ball in his hands, thanks to some quick thinking, Lio was able to use his tail to catch it before it hit the ground._

_"Hey, this whole being a catboy thing might be pretty useful," Lio said, winding up his tail before throwing the ball at Chris a little harder than he intended._

_"Oof!" Chris exclaimed, struggling to stay on his feet after catching the ball._

_"Sorry about that, Chris!" Lio apologized._

_"Don't worry about it," Chris said._

_"This time, don't cheat," Lynn said._

_"How was I cheating?" Lio asked._

_"By using your tail," Lynn answered. "That's totally not fair!"_

_"It may not be fair in the context of competitive play, but the fact that Lio can use his tail as an extra limb is rather impressive," Lisa said, having come outside to observe._

_"How's that antidote coming along?" Lynn asked._

_"Oh, I've already completed work on it," Lisa said nonchalant. "I just merely want to observe Lio in action for a few more hours to gain a complete understanding of my original formula's side effects."_

_"Shouldn't you want to return your brother back to normal as soon as possible rather than let him look like a…" Chris said before trailing off._

_"Like a what?" All three Loud siblings asked._

_"Like a…" Chris said before leaning in and whispering what he wanted to say into Lynn's ear._

_"Oh my gosh, how do you even know about that kind of stuff!?" Lynn asked him._

_"I was doing some research for a tabletop fantasy RPG I was doing and it led me to rather strange places…" Chris sheepishly admitted._

_"What kind of strange places?" Lisa asked, raising an eyebrow._

_"I'll tell you when you're older!" Lynn said quickly._

_"Bold of you to assume I wouldn't understand whatever you're referring to," Lisa said, rolling her eyes. "Anyway, I want to be able to observe Lio's semi-transformation for a few more hours to see if there are any more adverse side effects before I retook my original formula so that I can eliminate them."_

_"Lisa, we only have a few hours at most before our parents get back," Lynn pointed out. "You may wanna get on this as soon as possible!"_

_"Well why don't we let Lio decide?" Lisa replied. "I'm pretty sure he's enjoying his newfound abilities, right Lio?" When Lio didn't respond, Chris, Lynn and Lisa all looked around in confusion. "Lio?"_

_Lio had completely zoned out and was chasing after a small mouse that was crawling around in the backyard. Lio was using both his hands and his tail in an attempt to catch the rodent, even letting out a catlike hiss as he pursued it. At one point, Lio found himself running in circles chasing after the little mouse._

_"Lio!" Lisa, Lynn, and Chris all yelled, finally getting his attention._

_"Huh?" Lio said, stopping his chase to look up at the three of them. "Oh, sorry about that… I just got an urge to chase after it that I couldn't resist."_

_"Are you sure your experiment is mostly harmless?" Lynn asked. "I think your little experiment has seriously scrambled Lio's brain."_

_"While Lio's behavior is cause for question, I'm sure it's nothing major," Lisa said. "It could just be his body adjusting to the cat DNA that I spliced with his."_

_"You spliced your brother's DNA with that of a cat?" Chris asked. "That might explain his behavior. It could be that his human mind and instincts are merging with those of a cat's. A bit of "Mind is but a plaything to the body" kind of deal"_

_"Do you think it's possible for his cat instincts to completely take over?" Lynn asked._

_"I don't know," Chris said before turning to Lisa and saying "All I know is that you've got to administer that antidote and fast!"_

_"Right," Lisa said. "Wait right here, Lio, and I'll be right back with the…" the trio looked around to see that Lio had once again disappeared._

_In the dining room, Lio was hidden out of side and conversing with the very mouse he had just been chasing a few minutes prior. Meanwhile, Lio had made himself a slice of pizza and was about to dig in._

_"Alright, do you remember the plan?" Lio asked the mouse. The mouse nodded in response and Lio said "Good, now play dead."_

_The mouse followed Lio's instructions and went limp, allowing Lio to pick it up in his mouth. Lio then merrily crawled over to Lincoln on all fours and dropped the mouse at Lincoln's feet._

_"Um Lio, what the heck is this?" Lincoln asked._

_Lio gently nudged the mouse closer to Lincoln and let out an adorable sounding "meow" as he looked up at Lincoln._

_"That's… very nice of you," Lincoln said, not knowing what to think as he picked up the mouse by its tail and head to throw it outside. "But I don't think this belongs in the house" As he opened up the door, he commented "Lisa can't finish that antidote soon enough" before looking at his hand to find that the mouse had disappeared._

_"What the?" Lincoln asked before looking back over at the dining room table, where Lio had taken his pizza and was currently eating it alongside the mouse. "Clever boy" He quipped, rolling his eyes. "Good thing there's some more in the fridge, but seriously Lio, what has gotten into you?"_

_"Looks like he's retained his human level intellect," Lisa said before pointing at Chris and Lynn and ordering them "Quick, catch him and hold him while I go get the antidote!"_

_"On it!" Lynn and Chris said before going after Lio._

_Lio hissed and leapt out of their reach, running towards the living room. Neither Chris nor Lynn stopped in their pursuit and chased after him, leaving Lincoln to gawk at how surreal the whole situation was._

_"If you can believe it, this is actually one of the more normal Saturdays," Lincoln said before joining the chase._

_In the living room, Lio was briefly distracted by the curtains and stopped to scratch them up a little before moving on. Cat!Lio proved to be quite agile, managing to outmaneuver Lincoln, Lynn, and Chris as they attempted to catch him. There was a loud crash as Lio bounced off the wall in his effort to escape, leading the trio in circles as he ran away from them. The noise ended up catching Lori's attention._

_"What with all the noise?" Lori asked._

_"Can't talk, trying to catch Lio!" Chris explained as Lio ran past Lori, with Lynn right behind him._

_"You'll never take me!" Lio declared as he leapt atop the fireplace mantle._

_Lincoln, Lynn, and Chris seemingly had him cornered as they surrounded him. Lio still wasn't willing to go down so easy, springing into the air to jump over their heads. At that second, Lisa came downstairs with a syringe filled with the antidote._

_"Alright, I've got it!" She said. "Did you guys manage to catch him?"_

_"No, but we're working on it!" Lincoln told her as he pounced at Lio, only to just barely miss him._

_Lori sighed and pulled out a ball of yarn before saying "Oh, Lio!"_

_"Oooh, yarn, GIMME!" Lio said the moment his eyes fell on the ball of yarn. Immediately, he forgot about the others and ran over to Lori, taking the string from her hands and playing with it._

_"If you wanted to catch him, that's literally all you had to do," Lori said._

_"Oh yeah," Lincoln said. "Why didn't we think of that from the start?"_

_"Quick, get him while he's distracted!" Lynn shouted, pouncing on Lio while he was preoccupied and holding him down with ease. Even though she was single-handedly keeping him restrained, Chris and Lincoln quickly gave her a hand, keeping the catboy held down._

_"Steady… steady… there." Lisa said as she plunged the syringe into Lio's neck. Lio started to twitch and convulse before losing consciousness._

_"Oh my gosh, is he okay?" Lori asked._

_"I don't know," Lisa said. "I certainly didn't expect this type of reaction from him."_

_Lio came to several hours later, rather dizzy and in his bed in his and Lincoln's room. For a brief time after coming to, Lio thought that everything had merely been a dream, only to see that that wasn't the case when he saw that he still possessed his cat ears and tail._

_"What happened?" He asked, grabbing his head._

_"Oh, you got spliced with cat DNA and started acting like a cat," Lincoln explained. "At least, acting more like a cat than you usually do."_

_"Just what did I do?" Lio asked._

_"Caught a ball in your mouth, used your tail as an extra arm, brought a mouse to Lincoln and made us chase you around the house," Lynn explained nonchalantly._

_"Then Lisa injected you with an antidote or something that removed the cat DNA and you passed out," Chris explained._

_"If that's the case then why do I still have my tail?" Lio asked._

_"Because, it'll still take some time for the effects to completely wear off," Lisa explained. "You could have that cat tail and ears for anywhere from a few days to a few weeks."_

_"Great, I guess that means I have to stay hidden in my room until then, huh?" Lio asked._

_"Not necessarily," Lisa said. "I plan on coming clean to Mom and Dad. I know I'll probably be grounded for a month, but it's only right that I own up for what I did."_

_"We could still just try and pass off the ears and tail off as being part of a costume," Lio offered._

_"That'll only work for so long," Lisa said. "Besides, what if they don't believe it?"_

_"Then we say that it was all my idea and that I did to myself when I was messing around with your lab equipment," Lio said._

_"Are you really willing to do that just to spare me the punishment?" Lisa asked._

_"Of course," Lio said. "To be fair, we're both to blame for this. There's no fault in my throwing myself under the bus."_

_"Thanks, but you don't have to cover for me," Lisa said. "I'll take full responsibility for everything that's transpired."_

_"Are you sure you wanna do that?" Lio asked._

_"Positive," Lisa said._

_"_I've always cherished how you would always be willing to help me with my experiments at the drop of a hat, no matter how dangerous," Lisa told Lio. "That wasn't even the last time you put yourself at risk to help me with my scientific endeavors. It is one of the most memorable however." She chuckled. "I always felt that I could rely on you not just for my experiments but for being an awesome brother as well."

"Reliable?" Lio questioned.

"I'd have to agree with your sister on that one," Kat said. "But I'm sort of in disbelief: you were turned into a cat boy and you don't even have a picture of it?"

"Oh, I have a picture," Lio whispered to her. "I'll show it to you when this all over, I promise"

"This isn't going to be over until we can be sure that you're going to be okay," Lori said. "One thing I can say is that you've always had a drive to help us whenever we needed." She smiled fondly and said "Such as the time I tried out for the cheerleading team…"

"_Okay Lori, you can do this," a then 14 year old Lori said, trying to talk herself into signing up for the cheerleading team. "It's easy; just write your name on the paper, go to try outs at the end of the week and let things play out from there." Lori grabbed a pen and moved to write her name on the signup sheet, only to be brushed aside by two junior girls. One was a redhead and the other a brunette._

_"Ha!" The redhead scoffed. "What is a mousy little freshman like you possibly going to do on the team?"_

_"Yeah, you'll probably just embarrass yourself and fall flat on your face?" The brunette taunted._

_"You're better off not even trying," The redhead said, shoving Lori further out of the way so that they could sign up._

_"Or better yet, do sign up," said the brunette. "I need something to laugh at!"_

_The girls walked off after that, leaving Lori fuming from their teasing. Not making things any better was when her "rival", Carol Pingrey walked by to also sign up for cheerleading; because of course she was! Carol always had a habit of showing up Lori in everything they participated in, whether it be sports or music or pageants. And while Carol had never gloated about this fact and in fact, never showed any signs of animosity towards Lori. In fact, as she was signing up for cheerleading, she even had a few words of encouragement for Lori._

_"Hey, don't let those girls discourage you," She said, placing a hand on Lori shoulder. "Rebecca and Ashley can be real witches, but don't let them get to you" Carol signed up for the team and handed the pen to Lori. "Personally, I think you'd be a great cheerleader."_

_"You really think so?" Lori asked, not sure if Carol was being genuine or if she was being sarcastic and mocking her._

_"Of course!" Carol replied cheerfully and sincerely. "You've always excelled at everything you've tried." Carol laughed and said "Not to mention that any time we had to compete against each other, you always gave me a serious run for my money. It'd be nice if we could both be on the same time for once rather than have to face off again."_

_"Yeah… that would be nice," Lori muttered, doing her best to hide her anger at the fact that Carol had to bring up their competition._

_"I've gotta go to class, but I hope to see you at tryouts this Friday!" Carol said, waving goodbye at Lori as she headed off to class._

_"Well if Carol's trying out for the team, I'm definitely going to give it a shot," Lori thought to herself as she wrote her name on the sign up sheet. "I'll show those stuck up snobs who's the real embarrassment!"_

_Lori knew that making the team took more than just good looks and athleticism. She was going to have to train hard and study the team's routine. For that reason, she had looked up video of the previous year's cheer squad doing their routine on her laptop. Lori had to admit that she was a little intimidated by just how rigorous the routine appeared to be, featuring full fledged pyramids, somersaults and backflips, the full nine yards. It definitely wasn't going to be a walk in the park for someone who was just looking for popularity. Luckily for Lori, she had full confidence that she would be able to pull this off. It would just take some conditioning._

_"This doesn't look so hard," Lori said to herself. "I can totally do this! Maybe I can get Lynn's help with this."_

_"Get my help with what?" Lynn asked._

_"Getting down this cheerleading routine," Lori explained, showing Lynn the video. "It looks really hard and I thought that if anyone could help me, it'd-,"_

_"Sorry Lori, but I wouldn't be caught dead practicing that cheerleader stuff," Lynn said. "It's just way too girly for me. Not to mention it's no challenge at all for someone like me."_

_"Is that so?" Lori asked with a smirk. "So you're saying that if you wanted to, you'd have no trouble training me for tryouts?"_

_"Oh please, of course not," Lynn said. "Give me one afternoon and I could make you a top tier cheerleader in no time."_

_"Are you sure about that?" Lori asked, egging Lynn on._

_"Is water wet?" Lynn replied before catching on and asking. "Why are you so interested in cheerleading anyway? I thought golf was your thing."_

_"It is," Lori said, her face contorting into an angry scowl. "But there are these two mean girls named Rebecca and Ashley who I really want to prove wrong so I can rub their faces in it."_

_"Is that it?" Lynn asked._

_"Well, Carol Pingrey is also signing up for the team and I don't want to end up playing second fiddle to her again," Lori explained before blushing somewhat. "Plus, there's this cute boy, Bobby, whose attention I've really been trying to get. I'm hoping that maybe if I make the team, I can catch his eye."_

_"Oh, I see," Lynn said before teasing Lori. "Chasing after boys yet again, are we? Looking for a real lady killer or Prince Charming to sweep you off your feet, huh Lori?"_

_"Cut it out," Lori said, hitting Lynn with a pillow. "So will you help me or not?"_

_"Hmmm…?" Lynn said, taking a moment to think. "While cheerleading isn't exactly my thing, I do love putting people who think they're hot stuff in their place… so yeah, I'll help you!"_

_"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Lori said, hugging Lynn tightly._

_"Don't thank me just yet," Lynn told her. "This isn't going to be some simple kiddy affair. I'm going to push you to your limits and make sure you're the best cheerleader on the team! Are you ready for that?"_

_"I… guess?" Lori said, a bit intimidated by how intense Lynn was._

_"Then let's not waste any time," Lynn said, dragging Lori into the backyard to practice. "Alright, I watched that little video and just like I thought, that cheerleading nonsense was just baby stuff! So we'll start off with something easy: I want you to do a somersault"_

_"A what?" Lori asked._

_"You know, a somersault," Lynn said. "You do know what that is, don't you?"_

_"Yeah, but I've never done a somersault in my life," Lori said._

_"Great, just great, a beginner," Lynn muttered. "Here, I'll show you how to do it"_

_Lynn took a few steps back before getting a running head start and leaping into the air. Rather than settle with doing one simple somersault, Lynn went above and beyond, doing three consecutive somersaults in midair before her feet touched the ground._

_"Think you can do that?" Lynn asked._

_"Um… I can try," Lori said after picking her jaw up off the ground after seeing Lynn's display._

_"Then give it a shot," Lynn encouraged her, stepping aside._

_Lori took a running head start and leapt into the air. However, she wasn't nearly as agile as Lynn and ended up face planting into the ground mid rotation, causing Lori to sigh._

_"Oh brother, this is going to be a long day," Lynn murmured. "Guess we're going to have to start with something even more basic…"_

_A few minutes later, Lori was going through the dance routine while Lynn yelled at her._

_"Give me an R! Give me an O! Give me a Y-A-L!" Lori chanted, moving her arms and body to form the shapes of each letter. "Give me a W-O-O-,"_

_"Come on, is that the best you've got!?" Lynn shouted. "Pop Pop can move faster than that! Come on, speed it up! Put some more energy into it!"_

_"Give me a R-O-Y-A-L!" Lori shouted, moving a little faster. "Give me a W-O-O-D-S!"_

_"Really!? That's all you've got!?" Lynn continued taunting her. "Do you wanna make the cheerleading team or just be left watching from the sidelines!? Speed it up!"_

_"Give me a R-O-Y-A-L W-O-O-D-S!" Lori said, struggling to move in sync with her sped up chanting._

_"Faster!" Lynn demanded._

_"Give me a R-O-Y-AHHHH!" Lori said before losing her footing trying to keep up and tripping onto the ground._

_"Good grief," Lynn sighed as she helped Lori off the ground. "Come on, Lori, do you really want to make the cheerleading team or not?"_

_"Yeah, I wanna make the team," Lori said._

_"Well, you're not going to make the team with such sloppy efforts," Lynn told her. "Those other girls will eat you alive if they see you like this! You'll come in second behind Carol again. Those two brats you were talking about will be right. And worse, you'll never get the attention of that boy you're after. You've gotta shape up!"_

_"But I-," Lori tried to say before Lynn cut her off._

_"Alright, I'll tell you what, I'll help you with this next one," Lynn said. "We're just going to do a simple backflip."_

_"But I-," Lori started to say before Lynn once again cut her off._

_"Yeah, I know, you don't know how to do a backflip," Lynn said, rolling her eyes. "Just let me give you a boost and I'll help you."_

_"Okay…?" Lori said, cautiously stepping up and placing one foot in Lynn's hands._

_"Alright, I'll launch you into the air, just try to rotate until you land on your feet," Lynn advised her. "Alright, on 3. 3, 2…"_

_"Hold on, wait a second," Lori said, trying to get in proper position. "I'm not rea-,"_

_"Go!" Lynn said before launching Lori into the air. A little too high into the air as she ended up throwing a screaming Lori at least 5 meters into the air, over the backyard fence and into Mr. Grouse's yard. "Heheh, oops, guess I don't know my own strength." Lynn said, nervously rubbing her arm as Lori finally landed on the ground with a thud and an "Ow!"_

_"I might wanna get out of here," Lynn said. "Give Lori a chance to cool off a little." With that, she made herself scarce._

* * *

_"Hey, Lori!" Lio greeted Lori as she lied on the couch with an ice pack on her neck, her body sore from training with Lynn._

_"Oh, hey Lincoln," Lori said._

_"It's Lio," Lio corrected her._

_"Really?" Lori asked. "I swear, you have got to do something to make yourself so that I don't get you confused. Like, dye your hair or something."_

_"Yeah, I've been thinking about that," Lio said. "So, what're you doing?"_

_"Trying to rest up before I get back to training," Lori replied._

_"Training for what?" Lio asked._

_"For my tryouts for the cheer team this Friday," Lori explained. "I was getting help from Lynn, but she proved to be a little too…"_

_"Aggressive?" Lio offered helpfully._

_"Yeah, that's the word," Lori said with a nod._

_"Why do you wanna join the cheer squad?" Lio asked._

_"Mostly so that I can stick it to these two obnoxious stuck up brats!" Lori said, fuming from the mere thought of them._

_"I'm guessing that tryouts aren't as easy as actually signing up, are they?" Lio asked._

_"No," Lori said, showing Lio the video of the past year's cheerleading team going through their motions. "Just look at everything they're doing. Corkscrews and somersaults and cartwheels, I don't know if I can pull all of that off."_

_"You don't?" Lio asked, sounding confused. "But I thought that you could do anything."_

_"Why would you think that?" Lori asked._

_"Because you've always been able to do whatever you wanted," Lio said, looking down at his feet. "It was almost like you were a superhero or something."_

_"Yeah, well this cheerleading thing doesn't seem like something I'll be good at," Lori said. "Maybe those other girls were right, maybe I don't have what it takes."_

_"What kind of quitter talk is that?" Lio replied. "You're just going to let those jerks push you around and laugh at you?"_

_"What other choice do I have?" Lori asked._

_"Maybe I could help you practice so that you'll be ready on Friday," Lio offered._

_"Oh no, I've already been down that path," Lori said. "I am not getting thrown around like a rag doll again!"_

_"Lori… I'm not Lynn," Lio reminded her. "I'm not that strong." He then rubbed the back of his neck and added "Then again, I don't think anyone is as strong as Lynn."_

_"How are you going to help me?" Lori asked. "You're only 8 years old."_

_"Yare yare daze, don't underestimate me just 'cause I'm a kid," Lio said with a huff before pouting and crossing his arms._

_"Alright, I'll let you help me," Lori said. "But promise me you won't drop me on my head or anything, okay?"_

_"Why would I do that?" Lio asked, shooting Lori a strange look._

_The following day, Lori was back in the backyard to practice, this time with Lio providing assistance. Right off the bat, Lio was more laidback than Lynn, although that had mostly to do with the fact that he didn't have the competitive drive possessed by the latter. Not that there was any reason to be competitive in the first place. This was simply a practice session with nothing at stakes. That didn't mean that Lio wasn't as eager to help as Lynn was however, being just as determined to help Lori make the cheer team as the athletic sister had been._

_"So show me what you can do," Lio said. "Start with the school chant."_

_"Give me an R! Give me an O! Give me a Y-A-L!" Lori chanted._

_"That's good, but do you think you can move a little faster?" Lio asked._

_Lori nodded and, remembering Lynn's advice from the previous day, went through the motions as fast as she could while trying not to trip over her own two feet as she'd done yesterday._

_"Give me an R-O-Y-A-L W-O-O-D-S!" Lori said in one breath, all the while looking like a fish out of water as she tried posing in the shape of each letter._

_"Whoa, whoa, calm down Lori," Lio said. "It isn't a race or anything. When I said go faster, I didn't mean kick it into maximum overdrive" he laughed._

_"Sorry, sorry," Lori said. "I just thought you would want me to go as fast as I could."_

_"What, no way!" Lio said. "Just try and find an appropriate middle ground between slow and fast."_

_"Right," Lori said before trying again at a more average tempo. "Give me an R! Give me an O! Give me a Y-A-L!" She quickly moved on to the next set. "Give me a W-O-O-D-S! What does that spell? What does that spell?" Leaping into the air and doing a split, Lori cheered "Royal Woods! Royal Woods! Go~ Lions!"_

_"Very good," Lio said, clapping his hands. "I think that was just right." He winked at Lori and added "Nice touch with the midair split by the way!"_

_"Thanks," Lori said, wiping sweat from her brow._

_"I think you've got the most basic stuff down, now why don't we try doing-," Lio started to ask before Lori cut him off with a very poignant question._

_"Wait a second, basics?" Lori questioned. "How do you know that that's the basics of cheerleading? How do you know anything about cheerleading to begin with?"_

_"Read a little manga titled Cheer Boys," Lio explained, shrugging and saying "It was actually quite an interesting read if I'm being honest. I'd recommend it whenever you had the time"_

_"You can be quite the enigma, little brother," Lori deadpanned. "Now what were you going to suggest we move on to?"_

_"I was going to suggest we move onto cartwheels and somersaults," Lio said._

_"Oh no," Lori said, getting flashbacks to the previous day._

_"Do you not know how to do those?" Lio asked._

_"No," Lori answered._

_"Not even a cartwheel?" Lio asked and Lori shook her head. "Okay, well maybe a demonstration will help you out some."_

_Lori stepped aside so that Lio could demonstrate a cartwheel for her. Lio took a deep breath before taking a small running head start and executing an admittedly sloppy but decent cartwheel, something he berated himself for afterwards._

_"Dang it, I knew I should've practiced a little bit more!" He mumbled. "If Lynn saw how sloppy that cartwheel was, she'd make me do it 100 more times until I got it right! Come on, Lio, don't embarrass Lynn like that!"_

_"That was certainly a better cartwheel than anything I could ever do," Lori said._

_"Can you at least do a handstand?" Lio asked._

_"Yeah, easy peasy," Lori said._

_"Great, then this should be easy," Lio said before instructing Lori "Do a handstand right now is it's not too much trouble."_

_"Okay?" Lori said before doing what Lio asked. She struggled to keep her balance for a few seconds but quickly recovered. She was surprised when she felt Lio gently grab her in an attempt to keep her upright. "Eep!"_

_"Sorry, just trying to lend a hand," Lio apologized. "Now swing your legs to the right and try to land on both feet."_

_"O-Okay," Lori said. "Just remember what I said about not dropping me on my head."_

_"I wouldn't dream of doing such a thing," Lio assured her before Lori did as he said and swung her legs to her right. For a brief second, she thought that she was going to crash and burn, only to safely plant her feet on the ground and bring herself upright. "Good, now try the same thing again."_

_Lori nodded her head and went into a handstand before quickly swinging her legs to the side. Once again, Lio gently kept hold of her in order to guide her to execute a near picture perfect cartwheel._

_"One more time!" Lio cheered her on._

_Feeling a bit more confident in herself, Lori executed another cartwheel, this time without any assistance from Lio. Unfortunately for the latter, he ended up standing a bit too close and was inadvertently kicked in the head by Lori, knocking him down and almost out._

_"Sorry about that, little brother," Lori said as she helped Lio back up to his feet._

_"I think you've got the cartwheel thing down," Lio said, seeing stars swirling around his head. "Let's move on to something else."_

_The next thing Lio sought to teach Lori was how to do a backflip. Naturally, Lori was very nervous about this following how well her last lesson with Lynn had turned out. Especially when it turned out that Lio had a similar idea of helping her learn. Especially when it turned out that unlike Lynn, Lio also couldn't do a backflip, meaning it was essentially the blind leading the blind. Lio was persistent however and insisted that they at least try._

_"Alright, just put your foot in my hands and I'll give you a boost," Lio said._

_"I don't know if I wanna do this," Lori said nervously._

_"Why not?" Lio asked._

_"Because I'd rather not be launched into the stratosphere," Lori deadpanned._

_"Lori… I can understand you mistaking me for Lincoln, but I'm unsure as to how you can mix me up with Lynn," Lio retorted. "I'm nowhere near as strong as Lynn."_

_"Which brings up the possibility of you dropping me on my head," Lori replied._

_"Just try and trust me and I promise I won't disappoint you," Lio promised her._

_"Do you even have any advice on what I'm supposed to do after you give me a boost?" Lori asked._

_"Yeah," Lio said before giving his suggestion. "Swing your arms backwards after leaving the ground, tuck your knees at the peak of your jump, and keep your knees bent as you complete the rotation."_

_"That sounds like a lot to do," Lori said._

_"Don't worry," Lio said. "If anything goes wrong, I'll be there to cushion your fall."_

_"I'm still not sure about this," Lori said._

_"You're never going to make the team if you let fear take over," Lio advised her. "Think about those two witches, do you really want to let them win?"_

_Lori got a determined look on her face and said "Give me as big a boost as you can!"_

_"Aye aye, sister!" Lio said, obliging Lori's request and hoisting Lori into the air. Lori took Lio's advice and completed a full rotation. In the process, however, she had forgotten to tuck her knees, resulting in her foot catching Lio under the chin as he was cheering for her._

_"Yes! I did it!" Lori cheered. "I can't believe it!" Lori looked down to see Lio gazing up at the sky, a dazed look on his face. "You okay, Lio?"_

_"Lori, why do you have two heads?" Lio asked before passing out. Once he regained consciousness, he and Lori resumed practice._

_By the time Friday had rolled around, Lori felt that she was all ready to go. When she arrived for tryouts, Lori was surprised to see that the routine wasn't nearly as rigorous as it was made out to be. Safe to say, Lori completely crushed the tryouts, her training with Lio and Lynn having paid dividends. Still, Lori would have to wait until Monday before she found out whether she made the team. The next couple of days were some of the most anxious of Lori's life, with the eldest Loud sister biting her nails as she waited to find out the results. When Monday came around, Lori was quick to check out the list detailing who and who hadn't made the team. What Lori saw left her unable to contain her glee._

_"Oh my gosh, yes! I did it!" Lori cheered. "This is literally, the happiest moment of my life! I can't believe I made the team!"_

_"Neither can we," Rebecca scoffed as she and Ashley came to rain on Lori's parade. "What were the coaches thinking putting you on the team?"_

_"Hey, don't be so harsh," Ashley said. "Every team needs comic relief to make everyone else look good."_

_Rebecca and Ashley laughed with Rebecca telling Lori "You better not forget who the co-captains are!"_

_"Yeah, because if you try to upstage us, we'll make sure you regret it!" Ashley snarled._

_"This is our team," Rebecca warned. "And we won't let some pathetic little freshman steal our thunder. Especially one whose parents can't keep from getting busy."_

_"Why you-," Lori snarled, ready to throw punches as she got in the girls' faces._

_"Ah ah ah," Ashley mocked her. "No fighting unless you wanna get kicked off the team."_

_Reluctantly, Lori contained her anger and backed off._

_"Good girl," Rebecca said before knocking Lori's books out of her hand and onto the floor before she and Ashley walked off. "See you at the game this Friday."_

_"Try not to embarrass yourself," Ashley taunted. "Or more importantly us!"_

_Lori was fuming as she got down to pick up her books. As she was doing so, she received some help from Carol, who looked at her and smiled._

_"Ignore them, they're clearly intimidated by you," Carol said as she picked up Lori's math homework and character analysis. "I think it's awesome that you made the team… which is more than I can say for me."_

_"What do you mean?" Lori asked._

_"I didn't make the cut," Carol said sadly before quickly smiling again. "Still, I'm real happy for you and hope that you can show those bullies what you're made of."_

_"Thanks," Lori said with a smile as she finished gathering her books. Today was turning out to be better than she expected. Not only had she made the cheerleading team, she had finally one upped her rival at something._

_Lori couldn't wait to get home and share the news with her family. Upon hearing the news, she received many congratulations from her siblings. Despite her success, she was still anxious about Friday night when the first game rolled around. The last thing she wanted was to make a fool out of herself. Fortunately, she had her family to help her keep her wits about her. Finally, the big night arrived and Lori was ready to show everyone what she had when she received some exciting news from the head coach._

_"Alright, Loud, I know you're a freshman, but out of everyone who tried out, you honestly impressed me the most," The coach told her. "For that reason, I'm putting you front and center tonight."_

_"Oh, thank you thank you thank you!" Lori said, barely able to contain her excitement. "I promise that I won't let you down!"_

_"I know you won't," The coach said. "Now get out there and slay em'!"_

_Lori nodded and went out on the field to give the crowd something to remember, not noticing the death glares that Ashley and Rebecca were giving her. As the game went on, Lori did as she was told and wowed the crowd, keeping them energized all throughout the first half. Lynn and Lio in particular we're keeping a close eye on Lori as she performed flips and corkscrews. Both siblings seemed especially proud of her. When halftime rolled around and it was time for the main attraction, Lori was all set and ready to go._

_"Alright, here's what I want you to do," The coach instructed Lori. "The rest of the team are going to throw you in the air. I want you to pull off a triple corkscrew backflip, got it?"_

_"Doesn't seem too hard," Lori said confidently._

_"Don't worry about falling, the other girls will catch you," The coach assured her._

_"Alright," Lori said, prepping herself up. "I can totally do this."_

_Lori joined the rest of the team and had full confidence is herself as they picked her up and hurled her as high in the could in the air. Lori completed the corkscrew first before executing three flawless backflips, causing the crowd to become unglued. Their cheers would quickly turned to concerned gasps and stunned silence as Rebecca and Ashley stepped aside, causing the rest of the team to drop Lori on the descent, sending Lori crashing hard onto the ground. Lori had the wind knocked out of her and couldn't even move for a few seconds. Lori looked around dazed and confused, slowly trying to sit up to no avail._

_"Oh no, that doesn't look good," One spectator whispered._

_"That was quite the nasty fall, is she okay?" Whispered another._

_"Is she going to be alright?" Rita asked._

_"I don't know," said Leni. "But it looks pretty bad if they're bringing out a stretcher!"_

_As Lori was carried off the field and back into the locker room, Lio quietly slinked out of his seat and set off to see Lori for himself. Back in the locker room, Lori was starting to recover from the fall and sat up, soreness racking her body. Rebecca and Ashley couldn't help but float over their scheme._

_"Wow, Lori, you really dropped the ball out there," Rebecca taunted._

_"How could you be so clumsy as to fall like that?" Ashley teased._

_"That fall looked like it really hurt," Rebecca said. "Boy, am I glad that I'm not you. I don't know how I would live I embarrassed myself like that."_

_"I… only fell… because you two intentionally dropped me," Lori accused the two bullies._

_"Hey, don't blame us," Ashley said. "We told you not to steal our spotlight."_

_"But you just had to be selfish," Rebecca said. "Had to make tonight all about you!"_

_"Well, who's laughing now?" Ashley mocked her. "You'll be lucky if the coach lets you stay on the team after that blunder."_

_"You'll be lucky if the school doesn't suspend you after what you did!" Lio said, immediately walking over to Lori and asking "Are you okay?"_

_"Yeah… yeah, I'll be fine," Lori said, wincing as she sat up. "What are you doing here?"_

_"I saw you take that fall and I wanted to make sure you were alright," Lio answered._

_"Awww, isn't this cute?" Ashley teased. "Did you ask your pathetic loser little brother to come lick your wounds?"_

_"Guess being an embarrassment runs in the family," Rebecca remarked._

_"The only embarrassment I see is you," Lio said to the two. "Imagine being so jealous and insecure that you intentionally sabotage someone else in a vain, selfish attempt to keep the spotlight on yourself! Because you know that someone else is better than you and that fact just endlessly eats away at you! Oh wait, you don't have to imagine!"_

_"Why you little brat!" Rebecca said before rearing back and slapping Lio across the face as hard as she could, knocking the young boy to the ground._

_"Lio!" Lori said, kneeling down to check on her little brother._

_"Did anyone get the number of that witch?" Lio asked in a state of confusion. Tears welled up in his eyes, there was a raw red handprint on his left cheek and a trail of blood coming from the side of his mouth._

_"Little twit should've minded his own business," Ashley said._

_Lori snapped and shoved Ashley hard onto the ground before kicking her in the gut._

_"What the heck do you think you're doing, you barbarian!?" Rebecca yelled before Lori grabbed her by her hair and slammed her face first into one of the lockers. She then twisted Rebecca's arm behind her back, causing the latter to scream in pain._

_"I have had it up to here with your crap!" Lori yelled. "Making fun of me in the halls, knocking my books out of my hands, intentionally dropping me so that I'd get hurt and now slapping my little brother!"_

_"AHHHH, I'm sorry, let me go!" Rebecca pleaded, prompting Lori to twist her arm even further. "Stop, you psycho before you break my arm!"_

_"Shut up or I just might!" Lori hissed. "If you ever put your hands on a member of my family again, I'll make sure you end up eating through a straw!"_

_"Loud!" Lori heard the Head Coach yell, causing her to immediately drop Rebecca to the ground. "What is going on here?"_

_"Coach, I-," Lori tried to explain._

_"I thought that I had made it clear that fighting was strictly prohibited," The Coach said._

_"Yes, but-," Lori said._

_"No buts!" The Coach said sternly before saying in a sad tone "I'm sorry, Lori, but I'm afraid that I have no choice but to kick you off the team."_

_"Wait, Coach, please don't!" Lori pleaded._

_"I'm truly sorry, Lori, really I am," The Coach said. "But I have no other choice in the matter."_

_"Don't let the door hit you on the way out!" Ashley taunted as she helped Rebecca off the floor._

_"Don't think that you two are off the hook either!" The coach told the girls._

_"Wait, what?" Both girls asked._

_"Don't think that I don't know what you two did," The Coach said. "I saw you two intentionally step out of the way so that the others would drop Lori! Your actions disgust me! As a team, you're supposed to be there for your teammates no matter what!"_

_"Wait, Coach, you've got it all wrong," Rebecca pleaded._

_"No, you've got it wrong," The Coach retorted. "While I take no joy in kicking Lori off the team, after your actions, I couldn't be happier to kick off you two harpies! Now get out of my locker room!"_

_"That's totally not fair!" The girls screeched, storming out of the locker room._

_"I'm really sorry that things worked out the way they did, Lori" The Coach apologized to Lori. "However, I can encourage you to try out for the team again next year."_

_"Thanks Coach," Lori said, helping a dazed Lio up to his feet before gathering her things and leaving._

_As they exited the locker room and head to the bleachers to reunite with their family, Lori crossed paths with someone she hadn't been expecting._

_"Oh my gosh, Lori, are you alright?" Bobby asked, gently grabbing a hold of her._

_"Heheh, yeah… I'll be alright," Lori said, blushing hard as she talked with her crush. "How did… how did you know my name?"_

_"I've… I've actually been trying to work up the courage to talk to you for a long time," Bobby admitted. "After I saw what happened out there, I just had to make sure you were alright."_

_"Oh," Lori said, grinning nervously ear to ear as her face flushed bright red. "Well, I'm fine now, thank you for being concerned."_

_"I'll just go ahead and leave you two alone," Lio said, leaving to meet back up with the family._

_Once they were alone, Bobby asked "I know this might sound sudden, but do you think that we could maybe go out for drinks tomorrow or something?"_

_"I'd love to," Lori said nervously._

_"Oh, well that's okay, I-," Bobby said before double taking. "Wait, what?"_

_"I said I'd love to go out with you," Lori said._

_"Oh, r-r-really?" Bobby asked, blushing just as hard as Lori. "Well, that's great, I'll see you tomorrow."_

_"It's a date," Lori said, smiling at him._

_"Yeah, I know, that's how days work," Bobby said nervously. Lori only smiled more, she could tell she was going to enjoy his company with how innocent he seemed. "Well, I'd love to talk more, but I've gotta get back to my little sister. Make sure that she doesn't get into any trouble."_

_"I guess tonight wasn't so bad after all," Lori said to herself as she walked back to meet her family in the bleachers._

"Man, even when I was young, I was still ruining things," Lio muttered. "I honestly still feel bad I got you kicked off the team."

"You didn't get me kicked off the team," Lori said. "Besides, if I'm being honest, I didn't even enjoy being a cheerleader that much. I was just trying to make a splash during my freshman year."

"Still, leave it to me to get into trouble," Lio said.

"If it weren't for you and Lynn, I literally wouldn't have made the team in the first place," Lori pointed out. "And if it weren't for what happened that night, Bobby might not have never worked up the courage to talk to me."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Lio said, cracking a small smile for the first time since this meeting had began.

"Whatever happened to those girls anyway?" Leni asked. "Ashley and Rebecca?"

"Last I heard, they were kicked out of college for cheating on an exam and plagiarizing their finals essay," Lori said with a shrug.

"Honestly serves them right," Luna said. "I remember hearing horror stories about them from other students after they graduated."

"Yeah, they were literally the worst," Lori said before asking "So, who's next?"

"I think I have a story to share," Leni said. "This one may not be as wholesome as the others, but it's still stayed with me after all these years…"


	6. Dressed Up For Horror

_A mistake that many people made was assuming that Leni was stupid. Was she the brightest person in the room? No. Could she be a bit naive at times? Definitely. Could she be a bit of a ditz at times? Certainly, but to assume she was stupid would be doing a serious disservice to her. From time to time, even a few of her siblings thought that she was stupid. It cannot be understated that whenever Leni put her mind to something, she could be just as cunning, witting, and determined as the rest of her siblings. It was for that reason that Leni was sitting at a desk, tirelessly sketching design after design, only to crumple each of them up and toss them aside. It wasn't before long that she had a mountain of balled up paper at her feet._

_"Come on, Leni! Think!" She scolded herself, desperately trying to find inspiration. "This can't be the best you've got!"_

_"Hey Leni!" Lio greeted her, peeking his head into the room. "Dessert Storm is about to come on, wanna come watch it with me and Lincoln?"_

_"Sorry Lio, but I kinda don't have time for that right now," Leni told him._

_"Why is that?" Lio asked, looking out for Lori before cautiously stepping inside._

_"So you know the Royal Woods Junior Designers' Contest?" Leni asked._

_"Yeah, what about it?" Lio asked._

_"Well, I'm trying to design the perfect dress for the contest, but I can't think of anything," Leni said. "The contest is in a few days and I haven't even finished the basic design!"_

_"Well what kind of design were you going for?" Lio asked, hoping that he could offer his sister some help._

_"Well, I was thinking of something that's midnight blue with a twinkling silver flower pattern embroidered to the side just below the left breast," Leni said as she started sketching out the dress' layout yet again._

_"What about length?" Lio asked. "Does it cut off just below the knees or does it go all the way down?"_

_"All the way down," Leni answered. "I want it to resemble a prom dress or something you'd wear on the red carpet."_

_"Floofy at the bottom or no?" Lio asked._

_Leni shook her head and said "I want it to be slim and sleek. While I do occasionally like taking inspiration from Victorian era dresses or Mexican sundresses, I'm looking for something more modern for this one."_

_"Straps or no straps?"_

_"A single strap," Leni answered. "Over the right shoulder."_

_"Then what's the problem?" Lio asked. "That dress sounds totally awesome!"_

_"The problem is sketching it out," Leni replied before showing Lio her latest outline, which was rather crudely drawn and resembled a kindergartener's arts and craft drawing. "I mean, look at this, I can't work with a design as sloppy as this."_

_"Is that why you have all these wads of paper on the floor?" Lio asked, picking up on of them to see what Leni had drawn._

_"Yeah," Leni said. "Normally, I don't need to sketch out my dress designs before I begin work on them since I can just work from the vision in my head, but for this dress I want to be extra careful to make sure it comes out absolutely perfect."_

_"Fret not, Leni," Lio said. "You've got yourself an expert artist at your disposal who can perfectly illustrate your vision."_

_"Who's that?" Leni asked._

_"Me," Lio said, sounding a bit deflated._

_"Oh, that's right, I forgot you like to draw!" Leni said with an innocent giggle. "Sorry Lio, I kinda forgot."_

_"It's fine," Lio said, pulling out his trusty pen. "Just give me five minutes and I'll bring your vision to life."_

_Lio sat down and quickly began drawing out Leni's design as she had described it. Thanks to the details she had given him, it didn't take Lio much time to sketch out a draft outline for the dress Leni sought to make. The young artist didn't stop there and had soon drawn an entire render of the dress, fully colored and everything; all as Leni watched over his shoulder._

_"What do you know, took me less than five minutes," Lio said proudly before showing Leni his work. "So, what do you think? Is this good or am I missing anything? Do I need to redo this?"_

_"No, no, no! This is perfect! It's just as I imagined it!" Leni squealed, giving Lio a huge crushing hug. "Thank you so much, I'm going to start working on it right away!"_

_"Glad I could help," Lio squeaked, gasping for air. "Leni… you're kind of crushing me."_

_"Oops, sorry," Leni said, letting go of Lio before running over to her closet to retrieve the materials needed to make the dress she desired._

_Lio was just getting the air back into his lungs when he heard Leni let out a scream, causing him to run over to her to check up on her. "What's wrong?" He asked, looking over her shoulder to see what the commotion was about. "Are you okay?"_

_"I can't believe it, you've gotta be kidding me!" Leni said, desperately digging through the closet. "I cannot be all out! Not today! This like, cannot be happening!"_

_"What's wrong?" Lio asked._

_"I ran out of silk!" Leni explained, sounding like she was ready to cry. "I can't make the dress I have in mind without silk!"_

_"Leni…" Lio tried to say._

_"And before you say that I could just use some other material like polyester or wool, no that won't work!" Leni said, starting to pace back and forth. "In order for this dress to be perfect, it has to be made from silk!"_

_"Leni…"_

_"The judges would probably laugh in my face if I even thought about using some other fabric," Leni continued on. "Not that I'd ever think of using another fabric, but still, I can't-,"_

_"Leni, calm down!" Lio said, finally getting his sister's attention. "It's not that big a deal. It's not like we can't go out and buy some more silk for you."_

_"You don't understand," Leni said. "I don't just need any old regular silk, I need it to be in the midnight blue shade that I was talking about earlier."_

_"Then we'll go out and find some midnight blue shade silk," Lio said, shrugging his shoulders._

_"It's not that easy," Leni said._

_"Why?" Lio asked. "Is midnight blue like a super rare shade of silk or something?"_

_"No," Leni said. "Like, it's actually kind of the other way around in that it's super common. It's just that…"_

_"Just what?" Lio asked._

_"Practically everyone and their mom is going to be looking for midnight blue," Leni said. "We'll be lucky to find anywhere that still has it in stock! And even if we do, we'll have to fend off other girls who are after the same thing!"_

_"Then we better get going," Lio said, grabbing his hood._

_"Going where?" Leni asked._

_"Going out to find your material before they run out," Lio said. "We've still got a few hours left in the day so it's best not to waste any time."_

_"Do you really think that we can find it before anyone else?" Leni asked._

_"Who knows?" Lio said with a shrug. "But we'll never find out if we just wait around."_

_"I don't know about this, Lio," Leni said. "I just have a bad feeling about this."_

_"Truthfully, so do I," Lio admitted. "But more than anything, I wanna see you win that contest and I'll do anything I can to help that come to fruition."_

_"Are you sure you want to help me with this?" Leni asked. "Like, I don't want you getting hurt or anything."_

_"Absolutely," Lio answered, smiling ear to ear. "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. I'm sure nothing will happen."_

_"You say that now, but you've never been in the middle of a shopping frenzy," Leni tried to warn him. "I swear, it's like the people turn into animals trying to get what they want."_

_"Really?" Lio asked, showing signs of fear._

_"Yeah, like remember that time Lucy tricked me into thinking I was possessed by a demon?" Leni tried jogging his memory. "And I was thrashing and throwing things all over the place?"_

_"How could I forget?" Lio replied._

_"Well picture that, except like, 100 times worse," Leni said. "And with dozens of other people involved!"_

_"That sounds… chaotic," Lio said with a gulp, thinking in the back of his head "See, this is why people terrify me." Nevertheless, he was determined not to let fear stop him and said "We can still make an attempt."_

_"Are you sure you want to do this?" Leni asked him. "You don't have to do this for me."_

_"Look at it like this," Lio said. "Either we get to one of these stores and they still have your midnight blue silk in stock and we can hopefully get it without issue… or we arrive a little too late and they're all out so we avoid the rabid crowd you described."_

_"Do you really think it'll be that easy?" Leni asked._

_"Not really," Lio admitted. "In fact, part of me of telling me that there's no way it'll go down as smoothly as we hope, but maybe we can find something else that'll be suitable for your dress."_

_"I doubt it," Leni said, "but I guess it's worth a shot."_

_"Then let's get going," Lio said. "There's only so much time left in the day."_

_"But what about Dessert Storm?" Leni asked him._

_"Eh, I'll just get Lincoln to tell me the results later," Lio said with a shrug before the two departed._

_The first place the siblings chose to look was a fabric and crafts store located at the mall. Thanks to Leni's job at a rival store, she wasn't allowed to so much as step foot in said store, let alone actually purchase something from them. Lio however, was held to no such stipulation and could freely buy the materials Leni needed. If they had them in stock that was. While Leni waited outside, Lio walked inside and began looking around at the various fabrics in stock, desperately seeking out the midnight blue shade Leni was after. While finding that particular color was proving to be rather difficult, Lio took note of the various types of silk around him. There was milly black chiffon, cheetah print georgette, navy charmeuse, and many more hanging on the walls. However, when it came to the midnight blue, it was nowhere to be seen. Lio wasn't surprised seeing as Leni had told him midnight blue sold out rather quickly, but he had still been hoping for something of a miracle during this search. Following a few minutes of searching, Lio was approached by an employee of the store._

_"Well hello there, little boy, are you looking for something?" The woman asked._

_"Y-Yes," Lio replied nervously, using his hood to hide his face. "I-I-I'm looking for midnight blue silk fabric and was wondering if you had any."_

_"You don't seem like the type to be into this type of thing," The woman said, prompting Lio to reply with a nervous and offended "What's that supposed to mean?"_

_"Nothing, nothing," The woman said quickly trying to save face by saying "I'm just saying that boys your age typically aren't into fabric and designs such as this."_

_"I come from a family with 10 girls," Lio explained, becoming more and more anxious with each passing second. He really hadn't thought this through. "Anyway, do you have any midnight blue silk? Preferably satin?"_

_"I'm afraid not," The woman said. "We just sold our last few yards of that colour silk a few hours ago."_

_"Drats!" Lio thought to himself. "Can't say that I expected a different outcome, but I was hoping that we could maybe get lucky." Lio then asked the woman "Do you know when you'll be getting more silk in stock?"_

_"Not for another few days," The woman said. "At the earliest, we'll have another batch available in two days. Feel free to come back then if you're still looking for it!"_

_Lio nodded his head and calmly walked out of the store to reunite with Leni. "Did they have it?" Leni asked._

_"Afraid not," Lio said, shaking his head. "The lady said that they won't have that brand of silk available for another two days."_

_"That would only leave me with three days to finish my dress," Leni said sadly. "Talk about being put under pressure."_

_"Don't panic just yet," Lio said. "There are still several other places that we can check out. Doesn't hurt to give those places a try."_

_"I guess you're right," Leni said, "but before we go, do you think that we could stop by the food court and get some smoothies?"_

_"I was actually going to ask you the same thing," Lio said. "I guess you must've read my mind."_

_"Nah," Leni said. "I'm just really eager to try out this new smoothie place. I hear that it got rave reviews and I really wanna taste their blueberry smoothie. What kind are you going to get?"_

_"Probably cherry," Lio answered._

_"Why cherry?" Leni asked as the two head to the food court._

_"No reason," Lio said as he tried pushing the 'rerorerorero' thoughts out of his head. "No reason at all"_

_After getting their smoothies, the pair head to the next location on their list. This store was mostly known for selling goods for sewing and quiltmaking, but also stocked several types of fabrics available for use by any aspiring seamstress. It wasn't as large a chain as the store they'd visited in the mall, but they could still be reliable. Lio remembered their mom bringing him to this store last year when Lio was in that sewing class at school. As far as Lio remembered, Mom still had the quilt he'd made for her using those materials._

_"Are you sure that this place will have what we're looking for?" Leni asked as she and Lio walked through the doors. "Like, this place doesn't seem like the kind of store that would carry satin silk."_

_"I know that this doesn't seem like the likeliest place, but don't count them out just yet," Lio said. "Also, I looked them up on the internet and they said they carry a variety of different types of silk so maybe we'll catch a break here."_

_"Hello there!" A young woman greeted the pair. "How can I help the two of you?"_

_"I'm making a dress for the upcoming Junior Designer's Contest and I was hoping that you carried a certain type of silk that I was looking for," Leni explained._

_"Oh, I'm sure that we can help you in that regard," The woman said sweetly. "What kind of silk are you looking for?"_

_"Midnight blue satin silk, preferably 6.5 yards x 60 inches" Leni answered, causing the woman's eyes to go wide._

_"What did you say?" The woman asked, looking as if she were experiencing traumatic flashbacks of some sort. Her right eye twitched, giving off a psychotic vibe._

_"Um… midnight blue satin silk," Leni repeated herself. "You see, for the dress I'm trying to make, I wanna go for a sophisticated, high class type of look and-,"_

_"Oh no, not again," The woman said, pulling at her hair. Her strange behavior prompted Leni to throw herself in front of Lio while the latter looked ready to shrink away. "Don't tell me that you're one of those savages! You've come back to finish the job, have you?"_

_"What are you?" Leni started to ask before the woman unexpectedly grabbed a broom and brandished it like a ball bat. "WHOA!"_

_"You're one of them, aren't you?" The woman asked. "You shrill fashionista harpies who just want some stupid silk and don't care who you have to hurt to get it! Is that it, huh?" Both Leni and Lio slowly backed away. "Last time you witches came looking for your fancy midnight blue silk, you tore the whole store apart! Well it ain't going down like that this time!"_

_"What the heck is going on out here?" Asked the manager as they emerged from the back. Spotting their employee brandishing a broom at two kids, they tried to calm her down and defuse the situation. "Whoa, Donna, what do you think you're doing!? Put the broom down and let's talk about this.""They're back sir," Donna said nervously, keeping her eyes trained on Leni and Lio. You know what those hooligans did to me last time they came here! It took weeks for my hair to grow back after that crowd went crazy! I'm not letting it happen to me again!"_

_"Slow down a second," The manager said. "Who's back?"_

_"The midnight blue crew!" Donna yelled. "They've come back to finish what they started last time, I just know it!"_

_"Midnight blue?" The manager asked. "As in midnight blue silk?" Donna nodded her head and the manager got a steely look in their eyes. "I still remember that day as if it were yesterday. Dozens upon dozens of teenage girls, all fighting and trampling over one another. All the damage they caused, the windows they smashed, the shelves they toppled over, the fabrics they tore to shreds… all in search of that accursed midnight blue silk."_

_"Um…" Leni said, not sure of what to say._

_"Is it true that you two are looking for midnight blue silk?" The manager asked. The siblings nodded their head and the manager said "Well you're going to have to go to someone else if you want to find that stupid silk! After the fiasco that happened last time, we stopped carrying that line of material. Now get out and leave us alone before I call the cops!"_

_"But-," Leni protested._

_"OUT!" The manager insisted, pushing the pair out the door. "I'm sorry, you two seem like good kids, but after what happened last time, we can't take any chances." With that, the manager shut the door on both of them._

_"Well… that certainly didn't go as expected," Lio said._

_"Not going to lie, that lady kinda gave me the creeps," Leni said._

_"I don't blame you for that," Lio said. "Although given what she and the manager said about what happened last time, I can't say I blame her either."_

_"Yeah," Leni said._

_"Is the midnight blue craze really that bad?" Lio asked. "Do people really go in that much of a frenzy over that?"_

_"Yep," Leni said, nodding her head. "Like, no joke, people take their stuff really seriously."_

_"Yikes," Lio said._

_"So where are we head to next?" Leni asked. "Or should we just give up and go home now?"_

_"I'm not ready to throw in the towel just yet," Lio said. "There's still one more place I think we should check out."_

_The final place Lio brought Leni was a small mom and pop fabric shop. Lio figured that if anyone were to have what they were looking for with as little fuss as imaginable, it was here. Lio started to wonder why he hadn't just looked here first if that were the case. Nonetheless, they were here now and unlike the previous locales visited, Lio had a very good feeling about this shop. Upon entering the store, Lio and Leni were greeted by a kind elderly man._

_"Hello, good evening, welcome to my humble store!" He greeted them. "Tell me, how can I help the two of you today."_

_"We've been all over town looking for this special brand of silk," Leni explained. "We were hoping that you maybe had it and that we could buy it from you."_

_"Oh, say no more," The old man said. "Any material you're looking for, we've probably got it. Look around and tell me how many different materials we have available."_

_Leni and Lio took a moment to look around them at the many displays of cloth surrounding them. For a small business, this place looked to be loaded with materials._

_"Ten," Leni guessed, getting a chuckle out of the old man._

_"Oh, there's plenty more than that," The old man said. "We have so many different materials at our disposal, it's hard to keep count of all of them. So just tell me what you're after and I'll have my wife Sheila bring it out for you."_

_"Really?" Leni asked, her eyes lighting up. "That's great because like I said we've been everywhere and haven't been able to find what we're looking for. Anyway, the fabric in question that we're looking for is midnight blue satin silk and I need it 6.5 yards by 60 inches if you have it."_

_"That should be no problem," The old man said before calling his wife, "Sheila!"_

_"Don't worry, Harry, I'm already on it," Sheila said, gesturing for the pair to follow her. "You kids are in luck, we have just enough of that shade silk to satisfy your needs. It's in the back however so you're going to have to follow me."_

_"Oh, that's no problem," Leni said, she and Lio following after her. "We're just glad that you have it. Trying to buy it has been a real nightmare. I honestly didn't think that I'd find it after all this time we've spent!"_

_"Well you came to the right place," Sheila said with a smile. "Most people don't think to come to us so we sometimes have a surplus of supplies needed by aspiring fashion designers." The trio reached the back room where they encountered a dilemma. "Oh dear…"_

_"What is it?" Leni asked._

_"It would appear that the last of our midnight blue silk is at the top of that shelf," Sheila said, pointing upwards to the top of a tall shelf. She quickly grabbed a ladder and said "Bear with me as it might take me some time to climb up this thing."_

_Lio held up a hand as if to say "Don't worry about it, I've got this," before climbing up the ladder._

_"Your brother seems to a gentleman," Sheila observed._

_"Yeah, he always mentions how he wants to be a gentleman like this guy named Jonathan Joestar, whoever that is," Leni said._

_Lio had reached the top of the shelf and was reaching for the silk in question when the door to the shop opened. The resulting ring of a bell distracted Lio for a brief second and allowing all three to hear the ensuing conversation._

_"Hello there, how may I help y-," Henry started to ask before a rude middle aged woman cut him off._

_"Listen, I don't have time for idle chit chat," The woman said. "I have places to be so I'll make this quick: I'm looking for some midnight blue silk for my daughter, 6.5 yards x 60 inches. Do you have what I'm looking for?"_

_"Well yes, but-," Harry tried to say only to get cut off again._

_"Then go get it for me and make it snappy," The woman demanded. "My daughter is waiting and I promised her that I'd get this for her. She's going to win the junior designer's contest this weekend, you know."_

_"I'm sorry, but I already agreed to sell my last supply of that brand silk to another customer," Harry explained._

_"Really?" The woman scoffed. "And who exactly would that be?"_

_"This teenage girl and her little brother," Harry explained. "I believe she also said that she was going out for the contest as well."_

_"This is unacceptable, I already promised my daughter that silk and you're just going to give it away to some random girl!" The woman huffed. "I demand to speak with your manager!"_

_"I'm the owner," Harry replied, causing the woman to fume until she spotted Lio retrieving the silk from the top of the shelf._

_"You there!" The woman said, storming over to Sheila, Leni, and Lio and pointing at the latter. "Hand over that silk right now!"_

_Lio immediately hid behind Leni, feeling a panic attack coming on from having to deal with this hostile woman._

_"Didn't you hear me?" The woman shouted. "Quit wasting my time and give it to me!"_

_Lio only shrank back further, prompting Leni to ask "What the heck is your deal lady!?"_

_"My deal is that your little brother is being disrespectful towards his elders!" The woman replied. "I have told him repeatedly to hand over that silk and he has repeatedly refused to comply!"_

_"Leave him alone!" Leni said, standing in front of her brother defensively._

_"Step aside Missy or I'll give you a talking to too," The woman threatened, pushing Leni aside and into Sheila, knocking down the elderly woman. She then turned to Lio and asked "Now are you going to give it to me or not?"_

_Lio froze up, tears forming in his eyes as he stared blankly like a deer in the headlights. His instincts were telling him to run, so that's what he tried to do, running on his heels with silk in hand. He didn't make it far before the woman hit him in the face with her purse, knocking him out cold._

_"Serves you right," The woman said, snatching the silk from an unconscious Lio and dashing out the door, placing money on the counter as she did so. "Keep the change!"_

_After helping Sheila back up to her feet, Leni went to check on Lio._

_"What a foul woman she was, hitting a child like that," Sheila said, disgusted as she tried to help Leni get Lio to stir._

_"This is exactly the kind of thing I was afraid of," Leni said. "People go crazy over midnight blue for some reason."_

_"Sadly, that is the case," Sheila said, nodding in agreement. "Especially around this time of the year when prom season is approaching. I've seen so many people act like savages over a stupid cloth! It's despicable."_

_Lio finally started to stir, sitting up clutching his head and exclaiming "What the heck!? Did that woman have a brick in her purse or something!?"_

_"Are you alright?" Leni asked._

_"Yeah, I'm fine," Lio said, standing to his feet. "Sorry that I let her get away with your silk, I just froze up and didn't know what to do."_

_"It's fine," Leni told him. "I guess winning that contest just wasn't meant to be."_

_"I know it might not be much, but if it's any consolation, you're free to select from any of the remaining silks we have,"_

_"Thanks, but I don't think there's anything that can-," Leni said before spotting the perfect substitute. "Ooooooh! I may not have gotten the silk I wanted, but I think I found the next best thing."_

_"Well looks like everything worked out well in the end," Lio said, holding a bag of ice to his swollen left eye as he and Leni walked home. "Though I must say, you weren't lying when you said that people go bananas over midnight blue silk."_

_"You didn't think I was kidding, did I?" Leni asked._

_"No, not at all," Lio said. "I just didn't expect it to the degree you described."_

_"I tried to warn you," Leni said._

_"That you did," Lio said with a laugh. "Still, I'm glad you were at least able to find something else to make your dress with."_

_"Yeah and this dress will be so much better than what I originally had in mind," Leni said confidently._

_"What do you have in mind?" Lio asked. "Do you need me to sketch out your design for you?"_

_"Nah, that won't be necessary this time," Leni said. "I'm keeping this one top secret until this weekend."_

_"Whatever you have in mind, I can't wait to see it," Lio said. "Although if you also need someone to model it for you, you know who to call."_

_"Lincoln?" Leni replied. "Or maybe Lori? What about Lola?"_

_"I was talking about me," Lio said in a deflated tone._

_"Oh, right! Sorry!" Leni apologized. "But to be honest, I don't think I'm going to have anyone model this dress for me. Like I said, I wanna keep this a secret until Saturday."_

_"You've certainly got me itching with anticipation," Lio told her._

_"Thanks," Leni said. "I just hope I don't disappoint"_

_"I'm sure you won't," Lio said._

_Saturday rolled around fairly quickly and with it came the contest. As to be expected, Leni was fairly nervous about her prospects of winning. Thankfully, Leni's fears melted away when she saw the other contestants' dresses. Practically all of them looked the same and what's more, every single one of them resembled the design that Leni originally had in mind._

_"These dresses all look familiar," Leni said. "Where have I have I seen that design before?"_

_"Leni, those dresses look just like the one you originally wanted to make," Lio pointed out as he helped Leni carry the mannequin wearing her redesigned dress onto the stage._

_"Oh yeah, that's right," Leni said. "Wow, I can't believe they stole my idea like that!"_

_"Yeah, it's a good thing you thought of something else" Lio said._

_Listening closely, Leni and Lio could hear the other contestants arguing with each other, accusing one another of stealing and ripping off their idea. The contestants were so busy arguing amongst each other that they didn't even notice when the three judges took their seats and began silently critiquing each dress._

_"Ahem!" One judge said, finally getting their attention and getting them to stop talking. "My, my, I must say that it looks like each of you had the same idea."_

_"I concur," said the second judge. "Aside from some slight variations which are so small they might as well not even be counted, your dresses are all carbon copies of each other."_

_"Nevertheless, it is our job to determine which of your dresses is the best designed," The third judge said. "So we'll give you each a minute to explain what inspired your pieces… starting with you" He said, pointing to the far right._

_"Oh? Me?" The girl at the end replied. "Well I was inspired to make this dress after reading up on masquerade balls and had a desire to make something sensual and mysterious. I used only the finest materials to make this dress and even designed a cute mask to go along with it…"_

_Leni had to fight the urge to bite her nails as the judges went down the line, allowing each contestant to explain what inspired them to make their dress. In addition to their designs being similar, the other contestants' explanations sounded pretty much the same. When it finally came down to her, Leni was petrified._

_"And what is your name, dear?" Asked the second judge._

_"What is my name?" Leni asked, nervous beyond belief before she got ahold of herself. "My name is Leni Loud."_

_"Well, Ms. Loud, I notice that your entry in this contest is shrouded behind a veil," The first judge said. "Could you be so kind as to lift the veil and show us what you've created."_

_"Um… of course," Leni said, gesturing to Lio to pull the veil off of the mannequin._

_Lio nodded and pulled off the shroud, revealing an elegant black dress that instantly stood out from the other contestants'. This newly designed dress featured a ruched mesh design and was rather form fitting, while having a sheer illusion neckline and sleeves. The neckline was a rather deep V and the dress was designed so that it could be worn on or off the shoulder. Its length extended until it was just above the ankles. Seeing Leni's design caused both the judges and audience to gawk at how beautiful it looked._

_"What's this?" The third judge exclaimed. "Some originality? A dress that stands out from all the others in terms of its design, why I never! This is splendid!"_

_"Ms. Loud, if it's not too much trouble, do you mind explaining what have you this idea?" The first judge asked._

_"Well, I originally wanted to make something that would be a modern take on 1950s fashion magazine features," Leni said. "Then I took inspiration from the femme fatale trope from old crime movies and came up with this as a result. So… do you like?"_

_"Very much so!" The second judge said. "I don't know about my colleagues, but I think I've found the winner!"_

_"I'm very much inclined to agree," said the third judge._

_"Even if I were to disagree with your assessment, it wouldn't matter considering majority rule means you win regardless," the first judge said. "However, I find myself to be in complete agreement with my fellow judges, therefore I award this contest to you, Ms. Loud!"_

_"Ladies and gentlemen, give a round of applause to this year's winner of the Royal Woods Junior Designer's Contest… Leni Loud!" The announcer announced, prompting Leni to squeal with excitement while the crowd cheered her on._

"I'm not good at remembering a lot of things, but I'll always remember that," Leni told Lio.

"Same," Lio said. "I still remember the smile on your face after you won… it was honestly too adorable."

"Do you remember the time you climbed onto the roof to get my sunglasses for me after a bird stole them?" Leni asked.

"How could I forget?" Lio replied with a laugh. "Mom grounded me for a week for doing that since she said it was too dangerous."

"By the way, did you ever find out who won that episode of Dessert Storm?" Leni asked.

"No, I don't think I did," Lio said. "I forgot to ask Lincoln to tell me."

"It was Sasha," Lincoln chimed in. "Her soufflé simply outshined the others' desserts."

"Hey," Lucy said to Lio. "I remember in your diary, you mentioned our failed midnight excursion to the movies…"

"Yeah," Lio said with a frown. "I'm so sorry that I screwed up…"

"Don't be," Lucy said. "I'm not here to talk about that. I mean, what's one failure compared to, what is it by now, twenty seven successful attempts at sneaking out?"

"Hold on, you two have sneaked out before?" Lori asked.

"Dozens of times," Lucy said nonchalantly. "We've done it so many times that getting caught that one time was just bad luck." Lucy then turned to Lio and asked "Do you remember the first time we snuck out of the house to catch a horror movie?"

"Yeah, I remember being so nervous," Lio said.

"Honestly, I was too," Lucy said, "but somehow we pulled it off…"

_Anyone who knew Lucy knew that she was a huge horror aficionado. Whether it was your typical slasher flick or psychological horror to even gratuitously gory torture porn, there were very few genres of horror that Lucy didn't enjoy. Horror was one of the things that influenced her writing style and her overall personality. It played a huge role in her becoming the person she was today. The only problem lied in the fact that like any parents, Lynn Sr. and Rita were very apprehensive about letting her watch true horror movies or shows. There was a time where Lucy remembered having to sneak downstairs at night to watch reruns of Tales From the Crypt. Usually, the only types of horror that Lucy would be allowed to watch were family network channel original movies and cartoon Halloween episodes. Boring, cliched, poorly acted films that were hardly even frightening. Honestly, the scariest things about these movies were just cheesy they were._

_Occasionally, her parents would slip up and allow her to watch a real scary movie and that only made her crave more of the genuine article. Truthfully, even the real horror movies had a hard time actually scaring her, but Lucy always appreciated the effort put into them. The work that went into crafting the special effects, the (usually) engaging and creepy storylines. The (usually) stellar acting and abundant nightmare fuel that would keep most people up at night. Even the lesser quality movies had their own charm to them that kept Lucy's attention. Whether she was watching fleshed out realistic protagonists try to avoid a tragic fate or unsympathetic over the top (and frankly idiotic) caricatures being murdered one by one, Lucy almost always enjoyed watching her scary movies._

_Again, it was her parents' supervision that oftentimes kept her from engaging in her favorite pastime. It was for that reason that Lucy couldn't help but be a little disappointed when she saw the trailer for a new upcoming horror movie entitled "Justice". The premise seemed promising, featuring a well meaning but deranged doctor wanting to take eliminate the dregs of society such as murderers and thieves and killing herself in order to become a ghostly urban legend and gain the power to fulfill her wish. It wasn't often that horror movies featured female slasher villains so that alone had Lucy hooked. When she found out that one of her favorite directors had been in charge of the film her excitement only increased. The disappointment stemmed from the fact that Lucy knew her parents would never allow her to watch movie as violent and bloody as this one was shaping up to be. Making matters even worse was that the movie was coming out this Friday. Darn it, Lucy just had to see this movie if it was the last thing she did. She didn't just have to see it, she had to see it the very night that it came out._

_As Lucy lamented the situation, she's soon find a solution coming from a rather unexpected source. While one might not expect it from his quiet nature and fixation on anime and manga, Lio was just as much a horror aficionado as Lucy was. Just like Lucy, horror greatly influenced his writing and artstyle. Whether he was reading Edgar Allan Poe, reading a niche horror manga, watching scary movies behind his parents back, Lio always found joy in getting a good scare. He was never one to suffer nightmares from watching these movies, but they occasionally did keep him up at night. Lio's love of scary things was to a point that The Thing was his favorite movie of all time. If there were frights involved, Lio was all for it. As he grabbed an apple from the fridge, Lucy could hear him gushing over a certain movie trailer._

_"Whoa, wicked," Lio said, his eyes on his phone. "How did they pull off that effect and that kill, oh my DIO, it looked gruesome! I can't wait to see this in full!"_

_"Lio?" Lucy said, startling Lio and almost causing him to drop his apple._

_"Yo, what's going on Luc?" Lio asked after recovering from his shock._

_"What are you watching?" Lucy asked, trying to take a peek at his phone._

_"Oh, I was just checking out the trailer for this new movie that's coming out Friday," Lio explained. "It's called "Justice" and I think you'd really like it, Lucy. It seems like a real fun fright fest!"_

_"Yeah, I've heard," Lucy said. "I'm surprised that you're interested in a movie like that."_

_"Are you kidding me?" Lio replied. "I love scary movies like this and the protagonist, or is it antagonist, Gwendolyn seems so compelling. Like, oh my Speedwagon… can we just talk about Gwendolyn, she seems like she's going to be the next great slasher!"_

_"I know right!" Lucy said stoically. "One thing I'm interested in is seeing her transition from a wide eyed idealistic doctor to a psychotic but well intentioned killer ghost!"_

_"Same! This whole movie seems like it's going to be a blast," Lio said. "A bloody, terrifying blast, but fun nonetheless!"_

_"Too bad we won't be able to see it until it comes out on demand," Lucy said._

_"Why is that?" Lio asked._

_"Are you serious?" Lucy replied. "Mom Dad would never let us watch a movie like that."_

_"I dunno, maybe we could try asking them and see if they'd relent," Lio suggested._

_"I doubt that would work" Lucy said. "They'd probably claim this movie would warp our minds and traumatize us."_

_"I've seen scary movies far worse than what this movie is shaping up to be and came out just fine," Lio said. "It would take a lot to traumatize me."_

_"Still, do you think they'd waver and let us watch it?" Lucy asked._

_"You make a good point," Lio said. "I remember that it took a lot of begging and pleading to convince Mom to let me read and watch JoJo and even then, she was still a bit reluctant."_

_"I just wish they wouldn't treat us like babies," Lucy said. "I mean, I know they're just trying to look out for us, but this isn't anything we can't handle."_

_"I know what you mean," Lio said, taking a bite out of his apple._

_"Hold on a second, going back to what you said, what do you mean you've seen worse horror movies than this?" Lucy asked. "Just how many scary movies have you seen?"_

_"More than a kid my age should've seen," Lio replied before getting an idea. "I think I may have just thought of a way for us to see Justice."_

_"Oh?" Lucy asked. "What do you have in mind?"_

_"It's a little risky and devious, but if we can pull this off, it'll be well worth the risk," Lio said. "Are you willing to break some rules to see that movie?"_

_"I'll do anything to see that movie," Lucy answered._

_"So here's what I was thinking, I was thinking that sometime next week we sneak out of the house to catch a showing of Justice," Lio suggested. "We can do this after we get home from school or later in the evening as long as we're back before-,"_

_"You're thinking too small," Lucy interrupted him. "I want to see that movie as soon as possible. I want to be at the midnight premiere this Friday."_

_"Whoa, I know I said my plan was risky, but you're taking it to a whole new level," Lio said._

_"Come on, Lio, do you want to see this movie or not?" Lucy asked. "If we're going to sneak out, we might as well go big or go home."_

_"You have a point," Lio said, contemplating his options._

_"Think about it, do you really want to wait until next week when someone else has probably posted spoilers to the movie online?" Lucy asked. "Or do you want to be there opening night and be one of the first to experience the horror? To feel the nightmare?"_

_"You know, the more that I think about it, the more I can see the pros to sneaking out on opening night," Lio said. "For one, since it's a Friday that means we can sleep in on Saturday without arousing suspicion. Two, there's the thing you mentioned about not having to avoid spoilers. Three, if we sneak out late enough without waking up Mom Dad then we won't have to worry about arousing their suspicion."_

_"So what do you say, Lio?" Lucy asked, flashing Lio a subdued smirk. "Do you want to sneak out on Friday or not?"_

_"Hmm…" Lio said, thinking it over before smirking back at Lucy and saying "You know what, I'm in."_

_"I knew you'd say that," Lucy said._

_"I'm not going to lie, I'm just as eager to see this movie as you are," Lio admitted. "Not to mention that sneaking out of the house is nothing exactly new to me."_

_"Wait, you've snuck out of the house before?" Lucy asked._

_"More than once," Lio replied. "Usually to buy the latest manga from the bookstore before a crowd arrives and it sells out."_

_"Interesting," Lucy said. "That means you could probably give me some good advice on how we should best go about this?"_

_"Yeah," Lio said, nodding his head. "Honestly, sneaking out is the easiest part despite living with eleven siblings. All you really have to do is make it past your roommate and you're in the clear. As long as there's not a thunderstorm, you have nothing to worry about."_

_"Why would a thunderstorm be a problem?" Lucy asked. "Aside from the obvious issue?"_

_"Lincoln makes it a habit of checking up on you and our other younger sisters during thunderstorms," Lio explained. "To make sure none of you get scared or anything."_

_"Does he really think that I'd be scared of some silly thunder and lightning?" Lucy asked._

_"No," Lio said truthfully before smiling fondly. "But he always wants to make sure our little sisters are okay."_

_"That's pretty sweet of him," Lucy said. "But please carry on about how you go about sneaking out."_

_"Oh, right," Lio said before continuing on. "Once you make it out of your room without notice, all you have to do is make it down the stairs and out the door. And given your talent for sneaking up on people without making a peep, I think you have nothing to worry about in that regard."_

_"What's next?" Lucy asked._

_"Well, once we're out of the house, it's a matter of time management," Lio said. "We need to set a time for when we need to head out and when we need to be back. It is important that we stick to this set time no matter what. If we try sneaking out too early, we risk alerting one of our siblings who may not actually be asleep. If we're even a second late, we risk not making it to the theater in time"_

_"Is it really that vital?" Lucy asked._

_"Yes," Lio replied. "There's a reason why time management is important. If we're even a second off, we risk waking up either our siblings or Mom and Dad. We have to plot out each course of action down to the last second if we want this to be successful."_

_"So what do you propose we do?" Lucy asked._

_"The movie starts at midnight, right?" Lio asked and Lucy nodded. "And the movie theater is 15 minutes away on foot so that theoretically gives us up until 11:45 PM to leave the house. However, we also have to take into account the number of people who'll also be looking to catch the premiere, which could range from 3-400. The average screen room has roughly 225 seats. Assuming the theater will only have one midnight showing if Justice, that means we'll have to adjust and leave the house 45 minutes before midnight in order to buy tickets before they're sold out. No matter what we do, we're never going to beat the crowd that camps out overnight to buy tickets, which'll range from anywhere to 50-120 people. That'll leave us with anywhere between 100-175 tickets to work with. Assuming all of that goes off without a hitch, we'll be seated by 11:45, which is typically when the trailers begin."_

_"Are you-?" Lucy started to ask, only for Lio to continue on._

_"If the movies starts on time and has a runtime of 105 minutes (according to pre-screening reports), that means we'll get out of the movie at 1:45 AM, at which point we can't waste any time and have to head straight home to be back by 2 AM," Lio said. "It is imperative that we stick to this schedule to the letter if we want to avoid being caught. The only grace period we are allowed is the time between 11:30 and 11:40 PM, which is, if everything else has gone according to plan, is the time in which we'll purchase our snacks from the concession stand before making our way to our seats."_

_"You… you really were serious about plotting all of this out, weren't you?" Lucy asked._

_"Why of course," Lio said. "Mom and Dad would kill us if they found out we sneaked out after dark."_

_"Fair point," Lucy said. "But what if something goes wrong?"_

_"Then I'll take the heat for it," Lio said. "Admittedly, every time I've sneaked out, I've never stayed out longer than an hour so this is the first time I'll be out for a long time."_

_"Am I sensing a little nervousness creeping up?" Lucy asked._

_"A little bit, yeah," Lio admitted. "Like I said, I've never done something to this degree before…"_

_"I've never snuck out of the house before at all," Lucy pointed out. "You've got way more experience with this kind of thing than I do."_

_"I know," Lio said. "But that doesn't mean my nerves still don't get to me every once in a while." Lio smiled and said "Of course, that doesn't mean I'm going to let my nerves get in the way of taking my sister to see what'll probably be the best horror movie of the decade."_

_"We're actually going to do this then, huh?"_

_"Well, we've come too far to back out now, so why not go big or go home as you so elegantly phrased it?" Lio replied._

_"I'm definitely not backing down now," Lucy said. "If I do, then I'll never get a chance to see Justice."_

_"At least, not until it comes out on digital," Lio said. "Anyway, I guess we better start getting ready for Friday. Never too early to start getting prepared."_

_"Trust me, I'm way ahead of you," Lucy said._

_The next couple of days were a blur to Lucy. She was only fixated on Justice and the upcoming Friday. She couldn't believe that she was actually going to sneak out to watch a scary movie. Sure, she'd been out after dark for her mortician's club, but those had always been with her parents' permission. This was something completely new to her, going behind their backs and everything. And despite really anticipating this movie, Lucy couldn't help but think of what would happen if something went wrong. What if they woke up their parents while sneaking out? What if their parents decided to unexpectedly do a bed check while they were gone and they were caught? What if one of the others saw them sneaking out and alerted Mom and Dad? What if Lio unexpectedly had a change of heart and decided not to go through with their plan? What if he decided to tell Mom and Dad of what they were planning?_

_Lucy felt she didn't have to worry about that last option seeing as she could always turn around and tell Mom and Dad how he was always sneaking out to buy his manga. She could even use this information to blackmail him into going through with it if he got cold feet. Not that she felt it would come to that. In the back of her mind, Lucy knew that she was probably just overthinking things seeing as nerves were likely just getting the best of her, but that didn't stop her from worrying. Friday could not get here soon enough. Not just so that she could see the movie, but so that she could get over her worry._

_Finally, Friday night rolled around and the pieces were all falling into place. It seemed like everything was going to go perfectly. The Loud siblings all retired to their beds at the usual times while Rita and Lynn Sr tucked in for the night shortly afterwards. Both Lucy and Lio were wide awake, waiting patiently as their respective roommates were lulled into a gentle slumber. The two glances at their watches to check the time: 10:45 PM, still thirty minutes until they were set to leave. Despite this, both of them arose from their beds and put their ears to the door to listen out from their other siblings._

_Being home to 12 siblings, bedtime for one didn't necessarily mean bedtime for all. Luna could've been practicing her playing and rehearsing her vocals, Luan could've been trying out new material (and the fact that she told jokes in her sleep made it hard to tell if she was really asleep or not), Lori could've been on the phone with Bobby, there was no telling. Lio had planned for this, which is why he texted Lucy, telling her to wait 15 minutes before emerging from their rooms, when they could be sure that all the others were in a state of slumber. At 11:40, the two met each other by the door downstairs._

_"Alright, are you ready for this?" Lio whispered._

_"Yeah, I'm ready," Lucy whispered back. "Thank you, by the way"_

_"For what?" Lio asked._

_"For not backing out or getting cold feet," Lucy told him._

_"I promised you that I was taking you to see that movie and I meant it," Lio said. "You've got your dummy prepped in case anyone decides to check up on us, right?"_

_"Yep," Lucy replied. "Are you ready to go?"_

_"As ready as Freddy," Lio answered. "Freddy Krueger that is."_

_"Then let's get going," Lucy said._

_"You'll get no argument from me," Lio said, checking his watch. It was 11:13, a couple minutes ahead of schedule, but no issue with that._

_Opening the door slowly, the siblings began their walk to the movie theater, making it there exactly 15 minutes after leaving the house. Just as Lio predicted, there were a few people who were rolling up their sleeping bags and packing up their tents after camping out overnight. Fortunately, aside from them, it seemed like they had beat the crowd. After waiting in a short line, Lio and Lucy approached the ticket booth._

_"How can I help you?" The apathetic teenage cashier asked the two of them._

_"Two tickets to the midnight showing of Justice please," Lucy said._

_The cashier took one good look at the kids before saying "Sorry, but that movie is rated R and you two don't even look close to being old enough to watch it."_

_Lio looked at Lucy and winked before sliding the cashier a 20 dollar bill, causing him to completely change his tune._

_"You two seem rather responsible, I'm sure you can handle it," The cashier said, accepting the bribe. "That'll be 18 dollars."_

_Lio and Lucy looked at each other and smiled before handing the clerk the money and receiving their tickets._

_"I can't believe it was that easy," Lucy said as they head to the concession stand to get their snacks._

_"Luna taught me that trick," Lio said. "She says she shares a class with that guy and that he'll do anything for a quick buck. Apparently this theater job doesn't pay enough."_

_"How lucky for us," Lucy said._

_After purchasing their snacks (two large extra butter popcorns for each of them with Lucy ordering a dark raspberry slushie while Lio ordered a cherry slushie), the pair head straight to the theater room. The time was 11:47 PM and they were already seated and ready to go. The two of them barely paid attention to the trailers preceding the movie (one for a juvenile comedy that not even Luan would find funny, another for yet another superhero movie, two for a melodramatic romantic flick, one for action and the final trailer being for another horror movie that the two actually seemed intrigued by) and were just ready for the main attraction to begin._

_They would get their wish soon enough as the movie opened with a terrified man fleeing from a shadowy silhouette into an alleyway. Just when he thought that he'd escaped his pursuer, he was stabbed through the throat by an unseen killer who attacked from behind. This exciting opening scene instantly hooked Lucy and Lio's attention and let them know they were in for a ride before it was followed by a 1980s style TITLE CARD! What followed was 105 minutes of pure, gory, horrifying, cold sweat inducing, nightmare fuel filled fun that kept both siblings on the edge of their seats. There were even a few moments that made even Lucy jump in fright (not that she'd ever admit it). It was safe to say that this movie completely lived up not only to the hype, but to Lucy and Lio's expectations. By the time the movie was over, both of them were more than satisfied with what they had seen. It was well worth the money as well as the risk of getting in trouble if they got caught. The pair had plenty to talk about as they began their walk home._

_"I don't say this a lot but "the hype was real" for that movie," Lucy said, tossing her empty popcorn container and cup in the trash._

_"I know right!" Lio said excitedly. "Let's start with the story! Not going to lie, when I first heard about Justice, I thought the plot sounded like a combination of cliched creepypastas and would be the weakest part of the movie, but they actually managed to pull it off and make it feel original!"_

_"Part of the credit has to be given to the cast," Lucy said. "They played their parts to perfection and made the whole movie feel fresh and realistic."_

_"Especially the actress that played Gwendolyn," Lio said. "My DIO, that scene where she learned she miscarried… I could just feel the heartbreak she was going through!"_

_"Same," Lucy said. "Also, can we talk about the kills?"_

_"Yeeeeeeeeesssssssss! Every single one of those kills were epic and worthy of the Golden Chainsaw award!" Lio exclaimed. "I can't wait for the movie to come out on blu ray and digital so that I can see the behind the scenes features so I can find out the magic behind the practical effects they used for them."_

_"Especially the hot tar kill," Lucy said. "That kill was the most painful one in the whole movie, not that the guy didn't deserve it, but I really want to see how they pulled it off."_

_"I don't know about you, Luc, but I don't think I'm going to be able to sleep tonight," Lio said._

_"Scared you that much, huh?" Lucy asked._

_"No!" Lio replied quickly. "Because of just how good Justice was! It deserves to win all the awards!"_

_"I know what you mean," Lucy said. "I seriously want to watch it again"_

_"Well since we no longer have to worry about spoilers, we can always sneak around later tomorrow (or technically, today) to catch it a second time," Lio suggested. By now, the two were on the Loud House porch. "What do you say?"_

_"I say let's do it," Lucy replied before hugging Lio. "Thanks for taking me out to see it."_

_"You're welcome," Lio said, reciprocating the hug. "But don't thank me just yet. We still aren't completely out of the woods."_

_Lio slowly opened the door and tiptoed inside. The house was completely quiet with the only audible noise being the faint sound of snoring. Lio and Lucy knew better than to celebrate prematurely so for a few minutes they stood motionless. When it became apparent that the coast was clear, they silently cheered._

_"I can't believe it," Lucy whispered. "We did it. We actually got away with it. Yes!"_

_"Maybe we should do this kind of thing more often," Lio suggested._

_"If you're up for it, I'm all game," Lucy said._

_"_You have to admit that was a pretty fun night," Lucy said. "I still can't believe how easily we got away with it."

"Kinda crazy to think about, isn't it?" Lio replied.

"And you say you've done this be_f_ore?" Lori asked.

"Please don't tell Mom and Dad," Lucy pleaded.

"Don't worry, I won't," Lori said. "I'm just surprised you've done this so many times before."

"Especially you, Lio," Lynn said with a slight laugh. "I wouldn't expect someone as antisocial as you to sneak out at night for anything."

"Seriously," Leni said. "I wouldn't expect that out of you."

"What I want to know is how he got away with it without anyone knowing," Chris said, causing Luan to whistle inconspicuously.

"To be fair, Lio is rather good at keeping a secret," Lynn said. "Like that one time he kept silent about one of my secrets…"


	7. End

_It's no secret that Lynn Loud Jr was a very sporty girl. If it involves physical activity and pushing oneself to their limits, Lynn was all for it. She considered herself to be her own greatest enemy and was constantly scratching and clawing to one up herself. Always trying to prove that she was the best at whatever she tried at. Safe to say, she usually succeeded in her efforts. The drive to be the best was too great for her to ignore and anyone who tried to undermine her or make her look weak would quickly learn why she shouldn't be underestimated. Really, it was a matter of resolve at this point and Lynn had plenty of it. Anything she tried, she excelled at. Of course, with Lynn's many successes came a few enemies. Whether they were jealous of Lynn's victories or rubbed the wrong way by her admittedly unsportsmanlike gloating, there were a few who wanted nothing more than to see Lynn fall. To see Lynn be humiliated and pay for her supposed transgressions._

_As mentioned earlier, anything Lynn tried she excelled at, no matter what activity she ventured into. However, there were a few activities that Lynn would rather keep under wraps. Activities that she kept private from everyone aside from her most trusted friend, Chris. Not even her family knew how much she enjoyed this pastime or how good she was at it. Lynn felt that she would die of embarrassment if this secret ever got out and that's what made it the perfect material for someone to use against her. Lynn's plight began on at school on a rather uneventful Wednesday when she returned to her locker following a rather rigorous gym class. Pumped up and full of adrenaline, Lynn was surprised to find an envelope with her name on it taped to her locker. The sight would've struck her as odd were it not for that Chris was known to occasionally send her notes in between their classes. However, her hopes that Chris was the sender of this letter was quickly dashed when Chris approached her._

"_Hey, what's with the letter?" He asked._

"_You mean you didn't send this?" Lynn asked._

"_No," Chris said, shaking his head._

"_Hmm, that's weird," Lynn said. "I hope this isn't another secret admirer note. I'm still kinda creeped out by that Batson boy who was crushing on me a while back."_

"_Well, there's only one way to find out," Chris said. Lynn opened the letter and immediately let out a shriek upon seeing what was inside before quickly holding the envelope close to her chest. "Whoa, what's up?"_

_Lynn pulled Chris close and whispered to him "Look at this," before showing Chris a photo that depicted her playing a game of Dance Dance Revolution at the arcade and obtaining the highest score. "This cannot be happening, I thought I'd made sure no one else knew about that!" Lynn then turned to Chris and asked "This isn't a joke by you or something, is it?"_

"_No, of course not," Chris insisted. "Why would I be behind this?"_

"_Well, you're the only one who knows about me being a dance queen," Lynn pointed out. "Not even my siblings or parents know and I sure as heck haven't told any of my teammates!"_

"_You make a good point," Chris admitted. "But I would never take a picture of you during a time like this! I know how much keeping this secret means to you and would never do anything that could endanger it."_

"_I know you wouldn't," Lynn said. "But I'm curious: if you didn't take this picture, who did?"_

"_Is there anything else in that envelope that could maybe give you a clue?" Chris asked._

"_I don't know, let me see," Lynn said, looking into the envelope and finding a letter. A letter that made her blood run cold once she read it. "As my brother would say… oh crapbaskets."_

"_What?" Chris asked._

"_Listen to this," Lynn said, showing Chris the letter while quietly reading it out loud. "Well, well, well, what have we here? I never would've thought that little miss number one could be such a dance queen. I've gotta admit that you've got some pretty sick dance moves. Still, I wonder what would happen to your tough girl reputation if word got out just how much you like to bust a move. I know that you'd rather die than be looked at as a weak little girly girl. What would you be willing to do to keep this information from getting out? You'll be hearing from me again soon. Until then, toodlepip"_

"_Yikes, that's not good," Chris said. "From the sounds of it, someone wants to blackmail you for some reason. The only question is who would wanna blackmail you?"_

"_Heheh, about that…" Lynn said, chuckling nervously._

"_Lynn, how many enemies do you have?" Chris asked._

"_Well there's Charli, Yolanda, that Batson boy, Nicolas, Hannah, Laura, Diego…" Lynn said, trying to remember everyone who'd have reason to trifle with her. "Oh, not to mention the entire girls' basketball team from Bayside Jr. High."_

"_That's a… lotta suspects," Chris said. "I think we can count out the Bayside Junior High girls, I don't think they'd be willing to come all the way to Royal Woods just to get revenge."_

"_That only slightly narrows the list," Lynn said. "Oh my god, what am I going to do?"_

"_Don't worry, we'll figure out a way out of this," Chris tried to assure her._

"_I sure hope so," Lynn said. "When I find out the person who took that picture, I swear I'm going to-," to demonstrate her frustration, Lynn punched her locker, leaving a huge dent in the metal._

"_Maybe go easy on them," Chris said. "I don't want you to go to jail."_

"_I can't make any promises," Lynn said._

_Lynn couldn't concentrate on anything for the rest of her day. That letter she received had left her rightfully worried. What did this blackmailer even want? Was this just about revenge or did they want something more? For the rest of the school day, Lynn continued thinking about who had it out for her. When she arrived home from school that day, she was still trying to wrap her head over what was going on. She was so focused on the situation that she failed to notice she still had the photo and letter tightly grasped in her hand as she walked through the door. Until she was unintentionally startled by one of her brothers._

"_Hey Lynn!" Lio greeted her, causing her to drop the photo and the letter in surprise. "Oops, sorry, I didn't mean to startle you, let me help you with that."_

"_Wait, don't!" Lynn protested as Lio reached down to pick up the photo and letter, catching a glimpse at what they displayed in the process._

"_Hmm, what is this?" Lio asked before Lynn grabbed him roughly by his collar._

"_Listen to me, if you think of telling anyone what you saw, I will-," She started to threaten him._

"_Whoa whoa whoa, calm down," Lio said, trying to calm her down. "I was just trying to give these back to you and I certainly wouldn't tell anyone!"_

_Lynn relaxed a little bit and loosened her grip. "Well, now you've seen it so I guess there's nothing I can do about that," She said. "But I'm serious, you can't tell __**anyone**_ _about this!"_

"_To be honest, I didn't even know you were into DDR," Lio told her. "You don't strike me as the type to be into that game."_

"_Which is exactly why you can't tell anyone," Lynn said. "I can't have anyone knowing that I play such a kiddy game. I'd never hear the end of it."_

"_Hold on a second, I have one question," Lio said. "You wouldn't happen to be the player known as Nyl, would you? The player with the highest score on the game leaderboards by far and who keeps beating their record with each consecutive play?"_

"_Well duh," Lynn said. "Do you think I'd settle for anything less than first place?"_

"_Man, Lincoln would be so ticked off if he found out it was you," Lio said. "He's been trying for three months straight to beat your high scores and become number one at that game."_

"_You're not thinking about telling him, are you?" Lynn asked. "Because if you're thinking of blackmailing me like this other dweeb, you've got another thing coming!" _

"_Never in a million years," Lio said. "Wait, what do you mean you're being blackmailed?"_

_Lynn groaned and explained "There's someone who has it out for me who spied on me to take that photo of me dancing."_

"_And now they're using it against you?"_

"_Pretty much."_

"_Why?"_

"_I don't know why!" Lynn said. "Chris and I have been trying to figure that out for hours!" She groaned again and said "I don't even know what this person wants from me."_

"_So what are you going to do?" Lio asked._

"_I don't know," Lynn said. "I guess I'll just have to wait until this person tells me what they want from me."_

"_Do you even have an idea on who they might be?" Lio asked._

"_The list of suspects is way too long to list out everyone," Lynn said. "It could be anyone for all I know."_

"_Even Flip?" Lio asked, sounding hopeful._

"_After what my team did to his bathroom, yes, even Flip," Lynn said before she stopped Lio from getting overly excited. "Don't get your hopes up though. I doubt that geezer has anything to do with it."_

"_I could always play a couple Luan style pranks on him just to be on the safe side," Lio offered._

"_Let's save that for when he actually does something warranting retaliation," Lynn said. "Like I said, I doubt he's behind this whole blackmailing thing."_

"_Hmm, if you say so," Lio said with a shrug. "Is there anything I could do to help you get to the bottom of this?"_

"_Right now, no," Lynn said. "Well, aside from keeping your mouth zipped shut about all this."_

"_You have my word," Lio assured her._

"_You know what really sucks about this?" Lynn asked._

"_What?" Lio asked._

"_I was going to head back to the arcade to beat my high score this afternoon, but now I can't even do that," Lynn said._

"_Beat your high score in what?" Lincoln asked, entering through the front door. "And why can't you do it?"_

"_Oh, my high score in Street Fighter," Lynn lied quickly to save face. "And the reason I can't do it is because… because… because the arcade machine is down!"_

"_No it isn't," Lincoln said. "Clyde and I were just at the arcade 10 minutes ago. We were competing against Chandler and his friends in a Street Fighter tournament."_

"_Chandler," Lio hissed, speaking the boy's name as if he'd kicked his dog as his hand curled into a fist. "Please tell me you beat that pompous blowhard."_

"_Nah, we came up just a little short," Lincoln said, mumbling "Stupid Zangief," before telling Lynn "But you should be able to play Street Fighter now."_

"_You see, I would, but I…" Lynn said, struggling to think up an excuse. "I umm…"_

"_Didn't you say that you had some really hard math homework that you needed Lisa's help with?" Lio covered for her as he stuffed the photo and letter into his pockets to hide them from his brother. _

"_Yeah, that's right, thanks for reminding me," Lynn said before she walked up the stairs. "Oops, look at the time, time for my tutoring session. Talk to you guys later!"_

"_Is she okay?" Lincoln asked._

"_Yeah, she's fine," Lio said. "She Just has to start hitting the books, you know?"_

"_Right…" Lincoln said, not completely believing Lio's account. "So you know how I've been trying to beat Nyl's record in DDR?"_

"_Yeah," Lio said._

"_Well, it happened again," Lincoln said. "I was so close to toppling her high score only to come up short again! I swear it's like the universe itself doesn't want my to break the record!"_

"_No offense Linc, but why can't you just let it go?" Lio asked. "Maybe you just aren't meant to beat Nyl's high score."_

"_Are you kidding me?" Lincoln asked. "DDR is the only game I know for a fact that Lynn doesn't play, meaning that it's a game where I have a chance to stand out as number one for once and I cannot let that opportunity slip through my fingers!"_

"_I must admit, I admire your determination," Lio said, "but don't let this whole becoming number one thing go to your head."_

"_I won't," Lincoln promised him. "But you know what they say: persistence pays off."_

"_Well shine on you crazy diamond," Lio encouraged him, giving Lincoln a pat on the back before retreating to his and Lincoln's room._

_The following day, Lynn couldn't keep her mind off of the letter she'd received. Her only hope was that her mysterious blackmailer would send her another letter today. If she ever found the person behind this, Lynn promised that she'd smash them into the ground. Once her first two periods were over, Lynn head to her locker and was not disappointed when she found another letter taped to her locker._

"_Looks like you've got another note," Chris said, standing beside Lynn._

"_Maybe this time I'll be able to recognize the coward's handwriting," Lynn grumbled as she opened up the note to read it. "Are you kidding me right now!? I can't believe this!"_

"_What?" Chris asked._

"_Listen to this," Lynn said. "I didn't see you at the arcade yesterday, guess you're too afraid of being caught in the act. Don't tell me I've made you lose your passion for dance, that'd be such a tragedy. You were so good at it and it'd be a shame if you gave up the ghost. Though if that's the decision you want to make, I guess I have no choice but to show the world just how sick your moves are. Unless that is, you agree to show up at the arcade for one last final show. Maybe I'll be willing to show you who I actually am. Or maybe I'll just keep you guessing some more. See you then. Toodlepip!"_

"_So what are you going to do?" Chris asked._

"_I don't know," Lynn said. "I really do wanna find out who this is, but at the same time this could just be a trap set up so that they can get more dirt on me."_

"_This is quite the conundrum," Chris said. "Maybe we could set a trap for them."_

"_How are we going to do that?" Lynn said before hatching a scheme. "Actually, I know exactly what to do." She said before leaning into Chris' ear and telling him her plan._

"_That's brilliant, but do you think he'll be willing to go along with it?" Chris asked._

"_I'm sure he will," Lynn said. "As annoying as he can be sometimes, he's always reliable."_

* * *

"_So let me get this straight," Lio said. "You guys want me to dress up like Lynn and play Dance Dance in order to draw out-,"_

"_In order to draw out the blackmailer, yes," Lynn reiterates. "Chris and I will be keeping watch over the arcade in disguise and when we find the idiot behind this whole thing and expose them."_

"_You don't mind dressing up as Lynn, do you?" Chris asked._

"_No, not at all," Lio said. "I don't mind anything about this plan being honest, but there is one thing that could cause it to fall apart."_

"_What's that?" Chris asked._

"_I can't dance," Lio said. "Like at all. Last time I played DDR, I got an E score with negative 837,000 points. What if my terrible playing ends up giving away the ruse and the blackmailer bails?"_

"_Just fake it until you make it," Lynn advised him. "You don't have to do flawless, just make it look like you know what you're doing. You can do that for me, can't you?"_

"_For you? Of course I can do it!" Lio said confidently. "I'll do the best I can and bring that coward out of hiding, this I swear!"_

"_Was… was that an El Tigre reference?" Chris asked._

"_Yes," Lio admitted. "Lincoln and Ronnie Anne were talking about the show and it encouraged Linc and I to binge the show for nostalgia."_

"_Anyway…" Lynn said. "We've only got a few hours before the arcade closes and I have a bad feeling that if we don't show up like they wanted, they're going to release those photos to everyone in Royal Woods." She then handed Lio a spare of her outfit as well as a wig and said "Quick, change into this. I included elevated cleats in order to make up for the height difference between us."_

"_Do you think this'll work?" Chris asked._

"_I hope it does," Lynn said._

_A few minutes later, Lio returned from getting changed into the disguise. Admittedly, he pulled off Lynn's look rather well with the only real noticeable difference being his relative lack of muscle compared to the real Lynn. Other than that, his disguise was actually convincing._

"_Okay, I don't mean to be creepy or anything but these clothes are actually kinda comfy," Lio said as he took a look at himself._

"_You actually look more like Lynn than Lynn looks like Lynn," Chris joked._

"_Haha, very funny," Lynn said before flinging open the door. "Come on, let's get going."_

_The group hurried to the arcade, with Lynn and Chris clad in a hoodie and hat taking a seat close to the DDR machine while Lio patiently waited for the game to be cleared of players so he could step up. As he did so, he, Chris and Lynn looked around them for anyone who seemed out of place. Lio made sure not to look around too much, otherwise he'd look like a shifty drug dealer on the lookout for cops or something. After a few minutes of waiting, the game was all his and Lio stepped up to play._

"_Alright Lio, just remember what Lynn said," Lio said to himself. "Fake it till you make it. Make it look convincing like you know what you're doing. Do not let her down." That's when Lio noticed the addition of a new song to the game. "Ooh, is that Love and Joy?"_

"_Do you see anyone?" Lynn asked Chris._

"_So far no," Chris said. "So far everyone looks like they're just having a good time. I don't see anything suspicious in the slightest."_

"_Guess we'll just have to keep our eyes peeled," Lynn said. "The blackmailer is bound to slip up and expose themselves sooner or later."_

"_If they even showed up to begin with," Chris said. "Who's to say this isn't a ruse to make you look like a fool?"_

"_That wouldn't surprise me," Lynn muttered before she heard the song Lio had selected, causing her to let out a groan._

"_What?" Chris asked._

"_Do you hear the song he chose to dance to?" Lynn asked. "I swear he's trying to make me look like a pansy."_

"_Maybe he chose that song so that the blackmailer would be more likely to out themselves to capture the moment," Chris suggested. "I mean, seeing you do that dance to that song would be pretty embarrassing."_

"_Oh please, there's no way Lio is that smart," Lynn said before there was a bright flash accompanied by the click of a camera shutter._

_Lynn, Chris, and Lio all looked in the direction of the flash and spotted a figure in a hat cursing to themselves "Darnit, I thought I had turned off the flash,"_

"_Hey photo girl!" Lio shouted, stopping mid dance and making a beeline for the photographer._

"_Oh man," The girl said before turning and running away with Lio chasing after her._

"_Come on, we've got 'em now!" Lynn said, she and Chris getting out of their seats and chasing after the unknown girl. "Get back here, you coward!" She shouted at her._

_As Lio and the girl ran out of the arcade, they ran past a confused Lincoln, who was unaware of what was going on, having only seen "Lynn" step away from DDR before chaos ensued._

"_Wait a second, Lynn?" He questioned before the real Lynn and Chris ran past him. "What the heck did I just see?"_

"_Get back here!" Lynn shouted at the girl as she ran into an alleyway with Lio hot on her heels. There was a crash followed by the sound of someone dropping to the ground with a thud. "Oh man, that can't be good."_

_As Chris and Lynn rounded the corner into the alleyway, they found that said alleyway was a dead end and that the blackmailer had nowhere to run. Of course, the girl must've realized that seeing as she was holding an unconscious Lio by the shirt collar, a heavily dented metal garbage lid discarded to the side._

"_Using your own little brother to try and trick me?" The girl said, with Lynn instantly recognizing her voice. "Are there any depths you won't sink to?"_

"_Charlotte?" Lynn asked. "What's all this about?"_

"_Wait, you know this girl?" Chris asked._

"_Know her, she was my first teammate in basketball," Lynn replied. "We were the best players on the team before she decided to quit."_

"_Yeah, because despite the fact that I was just as good as you are, they decided to make __**you**_ _the team captain instead of me," Charlotte hissed._

"_Is that what this is about?" Lynn asked. "Listen, that wasn't my decision to make. We could've been the best team in the state if you hadn't quit. We could've still been friends."_

"_Oh please, you were never my friend," Charlotte said. "If you were my friend, you would've quit the team when I did, but no~! All you care about is being the best and winning championships and proving that "I'm NuMbER oNE"! From that day forward, I vowed that I'd get my revenge one way or another and when I found out that a renowned tough girl like you was into some cheap dancing game, I knew I hit the jackpot."_

"_So let me get this straight," Chris said. "You planned all of this to humiliate Lynn just because she was picked over you as basketball captain? That's what this is all about?"_

"_I wouldn't expect you to understand," Charlotte replied. "You always have been blindly loyal to that dog since you met her! I see her for what she is: a selfish narcissist who only cares about being on top and nothing else. I bet she doesn't even care that I beat her brother senseless."_

"_You did what?" Lynn snarled, rolling up her sleeves._

"_Oops, did I strike a nerve?" Charlotte mocked her before pulling out the camera she used to snap the picture. "I wonder what you care about more… your brother or your reputation?"_

"_If you don't let him go, you'll have to wonder how you're going to be able to talk without your tee-," Lynn started to say before she noticed that Lio had awoken and was giving her a wink._

"_Ah Ah Ah, let's not be hasty," Charlotte said, rearing back her hand as if she were going to hit Lio with the camera. "You wouldn't want anything else to happen to your brother, would you?"_

"_You wouldn't…" Lynn hissed._

"_Do you wanna take that-," Charlotte replied before Lio sprang back to life and bit her hand before snatching the camera out of her other hand. "Ow, you stupid little brat!" She tried swinging at Lio but the latter quickly returned to Lynn and Chris' side._

"_Thanks little bro," Lynn thanked him before destroying the camera. "Looks like you lost the dirt you had on me."_

"_You think that'll stop me?" Charlotte replied. "I can still tell everyone that you're the one who made all those high scores at Dance Dance and your reputation will crumble before your very eyes."_

"_Do you really think threatening me is a good idea?" Lynn asked, walking up to Charlotte and socking her in the gut. "Especially someone who knows her way around a fight."_

_Charlotte instantly lost all her bravado and began pleading with Lynn. "Hey, hey, I was just kidding about all that revenge stuff! Please don't hurt me!"_

"_So I take it you're not going to tell anyone about this?" Lynn asked._

"_Right, right, I won't utter a single peep about this to anyone," Charlotte promised._

"_Hmm, I don't know if I can trust you," Lynn said. "Especially after you tried to hold my brother hostage…"_

"_You have my word, I won't tell anyone else," Charlotte cowered in fear. "You'll never hear about this again!"_

"_Wait a second," Lynn, Lio, and Chris heard a voice say, turning their heads to see Lincoln. "Lynn, you're player Nyl?"_

"_Oh god dangit!" Lynn muttered before admitting "Yes, I'm the player who set all those high scores you've been trying to beat for the past three months."_

"_Are you kidding me!?" Lincoln yelled. "This whole time, my nemesis has been my sister!? Is this some sort of joke!?"_

"_To be fair, brother, in hindsight, it was kinda obvious," Lio said. "I mean, Nyl is literally just Lynn's name spelled backwards and missing an 'n'"_

"_To be fair, how long did it take for you to figure it out?" Chris asked him._

"_Touché," Lio said with a shrug._

_Charlotte tried taking the chance to sneak away only for Lynn to grab her by her hair._

"_Hold on, where do you think you're going?" Lynn asked._

"_Oh come on, we kissed and made up, I apologized, you can let me go now," Charlotte said._

"_Actually you didn't," Chris pointed out._

"_Well, I'm sorry," Charlotte apologized. "Really, really, really, really sorry!"_

_Lynn looked Charlotte in the eye and said "If you ever try something like this again, I'll make good on my promise to knock out your teeth, got it?"_

"_Yes, yes, I understand," Charlotte said before scurrying off. _

"_Well, I guess the cat's out of the bag," Lynn muttered._

"_Don't worry, we won't tell anyone," Lincoln said. "Although, I stand by my promise, I will beat your high score!"_

"_Hey, knock yourself out," Lynn said with a shrug. "See if you can pull off a pitch perfect game like yours truly."_

"_I still just have one question though," Lincoln said._

"_Shoot," Lio said._

"_Why are you dressed as Lynn?" Lincoln asked._

"_We'll explain later," Lynn, Chris and Lio all said simultaneously. _

"You know, I'm starting to notice that I get hit in the head a lot in these stories," Lio said. "It's a miracle I haven't suffered any major brain damage… although then again."

"I know you're just joking, but it's kinda hard to hear you saying stuff like that," Lincoln said.

"Sorry," Lio apologized.

"It's cool," Lincoln said. "You know, being identical twins has really come in handy sometimes."

"Yeah," Lio said. "I remember pulling the old switcheroo when we were kids."

"Even after you dyed your hair, we still pulled off that trick from time to time," Lincoln said. "Like when Clyde and I wanted to see the Ace Savvy movie."

"_Awwww man, of all the days for the Ace Savvy movie to come out, why does it have to be on a school day?" Lincoln moaned as he and Clyde stared at the movie poster that hung on his wall._

"_I was really hoping for it'd come out on a Friday or Saturday," Clyde said._

"_I was looking forward to seeing our cameo in the movie as part of the Royal Flush gang," Lincoln said._

"_Maybe we can go see it during the weekend," Clyde suggested._

"_Or maybe we could convince our parents to let us take a day off from school to go see it," Lincoln said, sounding hopeful. _

"_I wouldn't be so sure," Clyde said. "My dads would probably say something like "You need your education, it's important. Not to mention that we don't want you to get hurt by skipping school. You may come across a panhandler or something,""_

"_Yeah and now that I think about it, my parents probably wouldn't let me skip school either," Lincoln said. "Ughhhh, there has to be something we can do."_

"_I couldn't help but overhear your plight," Lio said, appearing from out of nowhere and causing the boys to jump in fright._

"_Lio? Where did you come from?" Lincoln asked._

"_Nevermind that," Lio said. "As I said before, I couldn't help but hear your plight and I thought I'd offer you my assistance."_

"_Assistance?" Lincoln asked. "How so?"_

"_The answer is simple, my dear brother," Lio said before undoing his combed back hair and arranging it to resemble Lincoln's, complete with the turkey tail. "It all lies in the hair."_

"_I'm not sure I follow," Lincoln said._

"_The answer is simple," Lio said. "We pull the old twin magic trick from when we were younger. I pose as you, take your place in all of your classes while you and Clyde get to take the day off to experience "Ace Savvy: Ace in the Hole" in full cinematic glory."_

"_That sounds great and all, but you forgot to account for one thing," Lincoln said, pointing out that Lio's hair was dyed with black stripes._

"_I can always just wash out the dye for a day, Lincoln," Lio retorted. "It's not that difficult"_

"_Don't you think that Mom and Dad will find it just a little suspicious that you undyed your hair?" Lincoln asked._

"_Maybe," Lio admitted. "But I'll probably come up with some explanation that'll keep them from getting suspicious."_

"_How are you going to explain away wearing my orange shirt?" Lincoln asked._

"_Another simple question with another simple answer, my good twin," Lio said. "I'll simply wear one of your shirts under my pink shirt."_

"_One more thing you're forgetting," Lincoln said. "How are you going to cover for both Clyde and myself?"_

"_Already thought of that," Lio said before pulling out a balloon model of Clyde. "I had Luan create this handy little duplicate to take Clyde's place. I also had her give me some ventriloquism lessons just in case I ever needed them. I can even give you do an impression."_

"_Let me hear it," Clyde said._

"_L-Lori! Systems reboot! Abort abort!" Lio said, doing his best to imitate Clyde's speech._

"_Could definitely use a lot of work," Clyde commented._

"_Meh, I'll just say that you were suffering a cold that day," Lio said nonchalantly with a shrug. "So Gentlemen, what do you say?"_

"_It sounds like you put a lot of planning into this," Lincoln remarked._

"_Well of course," Lio replied. "Anything to help my favorite brother and his best friend see the big movie based off of their favorite superhero."_

"_What do want?" Lincoln asked, suspecting Lio to be up to something._

"_What?" Lio feigned innocence._

"_What do you want?" Lincoln asked again. "There has to be something you want from me out of this."_

"_I assure you that this is no trick, dear brother," Lio promised. "I'm doing all of this out of the kindness of my heart. To help you and Clyde for nothing in return whatsoever."_

"_You have an oral presentation tomorrow, don't you?" Lincoln asked._

"_You know me so well," Lio admitted. "But I am serious, I'm willing to take both you and Clyde's place so you two can see the movie for nothing in return."_

"_Well, we do really want to see that movie," Lincoln said, taking some time to think over what he wanted to do._

"_The way I see it, it's a win-win," Lio said. "You and Clyde get to see yourselves on the big screen, I get out of having to stand in front of the class and if you two hurry, you can make it back to school before anyone even notices. Everyone gets what they want."_

"_When you put it like that, your offer is rather tempting," Lincoln said._

"_So what do you say gentlemen?" Lio asked, offering a handshake to both boys. "Won't you shake my hand? Won't you shake a poor sinner's hand?"_

"_One more thing," Clyde said. "How are you going to explain your own absence?"_

"_I'll lie and say that I was hiding in the bathroom all day," Lio said. "Hopefully you two will be back before the school day lets out."_

"_You know what, bro, you've got a deal!" Lincoln agreed, he and Clyde shaking Lio's hand._

"_I promise you two that I won't let you down," Lio said. "No one will even know that you're gone."_

_The following day, the first part of the plan went off without a hitch. The twins went to their respective first two classes as per usual just as they would any other day. However, when recess rolled around, Lio head into the bathroom, slipped out of his pink shirt and into Lincoln's familiar orange polo. Having washed out his hair dye the night before, Lio styled his hair until it perfectly resembled his brother's. _

"_Alright, this shouldn't be too hard," Lio said to himself as he pulled out balloon Clyde. "I know Lincoln like the back of my hand. Imitating him will be easy."_

_Just to be on the safe side, Lio met with Lincoln and Clyde before he was set to take their places to do another rundown of the plan._

"_You know, seeing you without your hair dyed crazy and wearing an orange shirt reminds me just how much you look like Lincoln's clone," Clyde remarked upon seeing Lio. "I might have to mark the real Lincoln with a marker to keep from getting confused."_

"_You know what to do, right?" Lincoln asked Lio._

"_Relax, I've got this all under control," Lio said. "No one will even know you're gone." He then told them "Just make sure you're back before the final bell so that no one finds out."_

"_We'll be back before you know it," Lincoln said._

"_Have fun," Lio said._

_With that, Lio reported to Lincoln's third class while Lincoln and Clyde took the opportunity to sneak off of school grounds and go to the movie theater._

"_I don't know about this," Clyde said. "I'm starting to have second thoughts about this whole ditching school thing."_

"_We've come too far to back out now," Lincoln told him. "It's either now or never."_

"_Not really," Clyde said. "I mean, we can always catch the movie some other time, we don't have to see it today."_

"_I know, but that doesn't sound nearly as cool," Lincoln said._

_Back with Lio, the young boy was sitting comfortably at Lincoln's desk, waiting for the lesson to begin. Aside from being seated at the front of the class, this wasn't so bad. He did his best to keep from showing signs of nervousness as the teacher walked into class. That was when he felt a tap on his shoulder. Lio looked behind him to find that the tap had come from Lincoln's friend, Liam._

"_Say, Lincoln, I forgot my pen at home," Liam said. "Do you think you could lend me one?"_

"_Sure thing," Lio said, reaching into his bag to pull out a pen._

"_What was that?" Liam asked. "I couldn't quite hear you."_

"_I said, "Sure thing"," Lio repeated a little bit louder. He'd forgotten that compared to Lincoln, his voice was considerably quieter._

"_One more time?"_

"_I said "sure thing!"" Lio said as loud as he could as he handed Liam the pen, getting the teacher's attention._

"_Excuse me, Lincoln, is there something you'd like to share with the class?" The teacher asked._

"_Um… no ma'am," Lio said quietly, shrinking back into his seat._

"_Since you want to interrupt my class, perhaps you'd like to answer this next question," She said. "Which of these is not a neuron: the interneuron, Motor neuron, the sensory neuron, or the perceptual neuron?"_

"_Um… perceptual neuron?" Lio took a random guess._

"_That's… correct," The teacher said. "However, I would appreciate it if you paid attention going forward and refrained from talking during class."_

"_Will do, sorry," Lio said, placing his head down and thinking to himself, "Well that happened. I'm going to have to be more careful not to make any more screw ups, unless I want to blow my cover."_

_Lio did his best to act as Lincoln would for the remainder of class, engaging in idle chit chat (by far, the hardest part of the masquerade for him) with Lincoln's friends, completing assignments and answering questions whenever the teacher called on him. Considering the fact that he was currently missing out on having to give an oral presentation, anything Lio had to go through would be worth it. He just had to make it until after lunch when hopefully Lincoln and Clyde would be back from the movie. _

_Over at the movie theater, Lincoln and Clyde had bought their tickets and were comfortably seated waiting for the show to begin. The boys were practically bouncing out of their seats with excitement._

"_Oh my gosh, I can't believe we're actually going to see our favorite hero's silver screen debut!" Clyde squealed._

"_I know, this is going to be great!" Lincoln agreed before the two received a "Sshh" from other moviegoers._

"_I take back what I said earlier," Clyde whispered. "Whatever trouble we get into is going to be so worth it!"_

"_Totally," Lincoln whispered back as the movie started. "Oh man, here we go!"_

"_By the way, how long is this movie?" Clyde asked._

"_An hour and a half," Lincoln answered. "Meaning we should make it back to school just before our final class is set to begin."_

"_Alright, cool," Clyde said before the two focused all of their attention on the screen._

_Back at school, class had let out and it was time for lunch. While he would've loved to enjoy the company of Kat, Lio had to keep up appearances by sitting with Stella, Zach, Rusty, and Liam. That didn't stop him from shooting Kat a text explaining the situation to her. As he walked over to the lunch table where Lincoln's friends were sitting, Lio was accosted by his rival, Chandler._

"_Look what we have here, everyone's favorite dysfunctional brother," Chandler said. "I'm surprised you and your boyfriend Clyde aren't off at the new Ace Savvy movie."_

"_Well, you know, we'll probably go see it this weekend," Lio said, hating every second of having to pretend to play nice with their jerk rather than tell him off like he wanted too._

"_Sucks for you, my friends and I are going out to see it as soon as school lets out!" Chandler bragged. "And why so quiet? You're starting to sound like your lapdog of a brother." Chandler then looked around and asked "Speaking of which, where is your brother? I'm surprised he isn't prancing around at your heels like you're his master."_

"_How am I supposed to know what he's up to?" Lio replied._

"_Typical, you can't even keep up with your own brother," Chandler said. "I don't know how you manage to keep up with 10 crazy sisters without losing your mind. Although then again, considering how bonkers they are…"_

_Lio wanted nothing more than to punch Chandler in the face then and there. Sure, there were times when they could annoy him, but no one was allowed to insult his sisters. Instead of hauling off however, Lio kept his cool and continued the facade._

"_If I were you, I'd watch your mouth," Lio advised him, something that seemed to take Chandler by surprise. _

"_Or else what?" Chandler replied._

"_Why don't you insult my sisters again and find out… please," Lio said, practically daring Chandler to test him before Stella grabbed him by his arm and pulled him over towards the table._

"_Lincoln, what the heck's gotten into you?" She asked._

"_He was talking about my family," Lio said. "I couldn't just let him get away with that."_

"_Are you feeling okay, Linc?" Stella asked. "Normally you don't let Chandler's trash talk get to you like that."_

"_Crapbaskets!" Lio thought you himself. "I messed up again! I've really got to keep my emotions in check." Lio then thought up a quick explanation and said "Sorry about that, I've kinda had a bit of a rough morning."_

"_That's understandable," Rusty said. "Just don't let that jerk get to you. He thinks he's all that because he's popular. He'll say a lot of things to get under your skin."_

"_Yeah, I wasn't expecting you to try picking a fight with him," Zach said. "Normally, it's you having to keep your brother from picking a fight with him."_

"_Maybe a bit of Lio has rubbed off on me," Lio said, chuckling nervously. He checked his watch and thought to himself, "Come on, Linc. Please come back soon. Turns out impersonating you wasn't as easy as I thought."_

_Meanwhile at the movies, Lincoln and Clyde were ecstatic as their cameo scene finally came._

"_Look Lincoln, there we are!" Clyde said excitedly, pointing at the screen where Lincoln, Clyde and the rest of the Loud sisters appeared as the Royal Flush gang to assist Ace Savvy._

"_That's it, it's official!" Lincoln said excitedly. "This is officially the greatest day of my life!" After calming down, he looked at Clyde and asked "You know what's funny?"_

"_What?" Clyde asked._

"_I was so caught up in actually being a part of the movie that I totally don't remember anything about shooting that scene," Lincoln said._

"_Me neither," Clyde said. "Which is strange because we were right there."_

"_Guess we were just so caught up in the moment that we forgot to savor the memory," Lincoln guessed._

"_Maybe so," Clyde said._

_Back at school, lunch had ended and it was time for Lio's second least favorite class, gym._

"_Yare yare daze," Lio thought to himself. "At the very least, I got to skip English class, meaning I skipped that presentation… but now I have to endure this barbaric class. Why is this required again?"_

"_Alright class, listen up!" The Coach yelled. "Today we're going to be climbing the rope so I hope you're all ready!"_

"_At least it's not dodgeball," Lio thought._

"_And then after that, we'll be playing a good ole fashioned game of dodgeball," The Coach announced._

"_Oh, I just had to think that, didn't I!?" Lio cursed himself. "Can I just do what I normally do and Nigerundayo?"_

"_Loud!" The Coach said, interrupting Lio from his thoughts. "You're up first!"_

"_And this day just keeps getting better!" Lio muttered as he stepped up to climb the rope._

_Lio knew he wouldn't be able to climb the rope, but he still had to give it a try. In the process, Lio ended up making himself look like a fool when he managed to scale halfway up the rope before slipping and getting his foot caught up in it. The end result was Lio hanging upside down by his foot while the other students pointed and laughed at him._

"_At least Linc doesn't have to go through this," Lio thought to himself. "I hope he and Clyde are having fun because I'm sure as heck not."_

_Once Lio had been untangled, he tried sneaking out of class before the dodgeball game was set to begin, only to be beaned in the back of his head by a dodgeball._

"_Where do you think you're going, Lincoln?" Chandler asked, holding another dodgeball in his hand._

"_Let it go, Lio," Lio said to himself. "Don't let that jerk get to you. If anything, do it for Lincoln. Speaking of which, I wonder what he and Clyde are up to right now."_

"_Yo, that movie was awesome!" Clyde said._

"_Movie of the Year contender for sure," Lincoln said. "Heck, forget contender! Give that movie all of the Oscars!" Lincoln then asked "How much time do we have left before school's over?"_

"_30 minutes," Clyde said, glancing at his watch._

"_Wait, really?" Lincoln asked. "Man, that movie ran longer than expected. We've gotta get going now!"_

_The boys didn't waste a single motion and rushed back to the school; making it back just 10 minutes before the final bell was set to ring. _

"_So how was the movie?" Lio asked, sporting a small cut over his right eye._

"_It was amazing, it was wonderful, it was everything we thought it would be!" Lincoln exclaimed before asking "What happened to you?"_

"_Have I mentioned that I hate gym class?" Lio replied, scowling in anger. "Glad that at least one of us was able to have a good time."_

"_Tough day, huh?" Clyde asked._

"_You don't know the half of it," Lio said, putting his signature pink shirt back on. "On the bright side, at least I got out of that report so that's a plus."_

"_Honestly, everything about today has been perfect," Lincoln said. "Thanks again for taking our place."_

"_Don't mention it," Lio said. "Although I will say that being you isn't as easy as you make it look. Seriously, how do you keep your cool all the time?"_

"_You almost got into a fight with Chandler, didn't you?" Lincoln asked._

"_Again, you know me so well," Lio said._

"You know, the funny thing is that we still got busted when we got home that day," Lio said.

"Still worth it though," Lincoln said.

"Yeah, it really was," Lio smiled.

"I still don't quite know why you did what you did for us that day," Clyde said.

"I told you, I wanted to-," Lio said.

"Yeah, you said you wanted to get out of your report, but you could've just hid in the bathroom or library," Lincoln pointed out. "What's the real reason?"

"Because you're my brother," Lio answered. "And I owe it to you."

"What do you mean you owe me?" Lincoln asked.

"I owe you for putting up with me," Lio answered, looking down.

"Is that the reason you help all of us?" Lucy asked. "Because you feel you owe it to us?"

"Partially," Lio answered. "I just feel this constant need to make up for all the crap I put you through. For how annoying I can be."

"I don't know if you know this, Lio, but we're siblings," Luna pointed out to him. "We're practically obligated to annoy each other. It doesn't mean we hate you."

"I know, but I feel like the only time I'm ever of any worth is when I'm doing something for you guys," Lio said. "Anything else I do is worthless. Anything else I do is us-,"

"What did I say about calling yourself useless?" Lola reminded him.

"Right, sorry," Lio apologized.

"Anything else you do is worthless, you say?" Kat asked him. "Does that apply to our friendship as well? Is that useless too?"

"No, of course not," Lio said. "Our friendship is anything _but_ worthless." He blushed as he said "It's honestly one of the best things that ever happened to me."

"Glad to hear it," Kat said, grabbing Lio by his hand and telling him "Honestly, it was one of the best things to happen to me too. Do you remember the party we met at?"

"Yeah," Lio said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I was so nervous when Lincoln dragged me along, I just wanted to crawl into the darkest corner."

"You _did _crawl into the darkest corner," Kat laughed. "That's where I met you."

"Yeah," Lio said, "I love how gravity brought ya together."

"Hey, I have a question," Leni said.

"Huh?" Lio asked.

"I kinda read a little further into your diary," Leni said, "and do you ever think of…"

"Think of what?" Lio asked, even though he knew very well what Leni was going to ask. _**Everyone **_knew what Leni was going to ask, despite her attempts to be delicate regarding the subject.

"So you know the Show _13 Reasons Why_?" Leni asked. "Do you ever think of, well, you know?"

"You're asking if I've ever thought about killing myself?" Lio asked and Leni nodded.

What followed were two or three minutes of silence as Lio didn't exactly know how to answer the question. Instead, Lio turned his back to his family as if he were too ashamed to face them.

"Well, have you?" Lori asked, dreading the possible answer she'd receive.

After a few more seconds of silence, Lio quietly said "Yes…"

Naturally, that took everyone aback, leading to a few more seconds of silence. Kat was the first to speak up, asking "Colonel, please tell me you're joking."

"I wish I was," Lio said, "but I'm not. Don't get me wrong, it's not like every day I wake up and think to myself "How can I kill myself today?", quite the opposite actually. It's like, I can be drawing or otherwise minding my own business when I just suddenly have the idea of just ending it."

Lio didn't know what to expect when Kat wrapped her arms around him and said "I don't care how worthless you think you are, promise me that you'll never actually hurt yourself."

"Kat, I-" Lio started to say, being surprised when he heard that she was softly crying. He became even more surprised when he noticed that Lola was crying as well, something that caught him offguard. "Um, are you…"

Lio didn't finish his sentence before even more of his siblings started crying and before long, all of his siblings were in tears, leaving Lio confused. Kat hadn't let go of him and in fact, held onto him even harder. Lio didn't know what to say, didn't know what to do aside from stand completely motionless. Pretty soon, Lio himself started to cry, mentally berating himself for upsetting his family. If he'd just been a little smarter when it came to keeping his journal a secret, none of the would've happened. Why was it that he couldn't do anything right?

For a full thirty minutes, the only sound in the room was that of the Louds and friends crying. None of them knew exactly how to take the news that their brother/friend was suffering from suicidal thoughts and had been suffering from this for quite some time. The Louds were used to comforting one another, but didn't exactly know how to approach a sibling who had thoughts of ending his life. That's not even getting into the fact that none of them would know what to do if they lost one of their own. It'd be as if their world was literally turned upside down. When the Louds calmed down and had gotten ahold of themselves, Luan joined Kat in hugging Lio.

"If you think that that was sad," she told him, "that was only a taste of what would happen if you ever killed yourself."

"Are you serious?" Lio asked, not quite believing her.

"Remember a few months ago when I was crying on the couch and I told you I was thinking about running away from home?" Luan asked.

"Yeah?" Lio replied.

"Do you remember what you told me?" Luan asked.

"I told you that the family wouldn't be the same without you," Lio recalled that night, "and that it would be like ripping a chapter out of a book, it'd be incomplete."

"Do you think that you're an exception?" Luan asked.

"Yes!" Lio said emphatically. "You don't get it! I don't add anything to this family! I'm just an expendable loser who could easily be replaced!"

"I don't know how you could still think that after everything we've told you," Luan said, grabbing Lio by his shoulders and forcing him to look her in the eyes. "Look at me. Do you honestly think that we would tell you how much you mean to us if it weren't true? You're not some useless idiot who we barely tolerate! You're our brother, who we love no matter what."

That finally seemed to get through to Lio and the boy broke down into tears once again. Luan pulled him into a hug and was joined by Kat and the rest of the Louds shortly afterwards.

"I don't care what anyone says," Kat told him, "I don't care if _**you**_ think it, you're _**not **_useless. You're not worthless."

"And you're not expendable," Lori told him. "I never want to hear you say anything like that about yourself again."

"None of us do," Luna added, "because it's a lie."

"Thank you," Lio said through his tears, finally getting the picture. "Thank you so much!"

After a few minutes, Lincoln asked his twin "Are you going to be alright?"

"Yeah, I think I'll be alright," Lio said, wiping tears from his eyes.

"You know that we'll always be here if you need us," Lincoln told him.

"Thanks," Lio said.

"I'm serious," Lincoln said, "Whenever you start getting those feelings of worthlessness, you can come talk to us."

"Thanks," Lio said, sheepishly saying "but you do realize that I could end up coming to talk to you guys a lot, right?"

"That's literally what we're here for," Lori said.

A few hours later, after all was said and done, Lio was writing a new entry in his journal. Having a renewed sense of hope and feeling slightly more confident in himself, Lio let out a genuine smile for the first time in a long while. The feeling of knowing that his family and friends loved him unconditionally and that nothing would ever change that, gave the otaku reason to perk up and smile. He knew he was far from perfect and that there'd be plenty of times where he'd argue with them, but if they could accept him for who he was, flaws and all, then it was time for him to do the same.

_I don't exactly know how to go about this, but I guess it's worth a shot. For most of this journal, I've only written about how worthless I am, but maybe I'm not so useless after all. If I can get my family to be as supportive of me as they are, I have to be doing something right. Maybe I was wrong when I said I didn't deserve them. Words can never describe how much I truly love and care for them. Nor can words sum up how thankful I am for their presence in my life. Not only them, but a certain Lieutenant of mine who makes dealing with my depression a hell of a lot easier. At the end of the day, I'm one helluva lucky guy and while I'm a long ways away from being completely okay, I know that with these guys by my side, I'll make it through. I owe it to them to keep living and to be the best version of myself that I can be. There'll still be some things that I'll never feel comfortable opening up to them about and I'll admit, I still feel like the inferior Loud compared to all of them, but I know for certain that I'm truly loved and cherished. No matter what that voice in my head says, I'm not listening to it anymore. _

End


End file.
